The treachery of Konoha
by serafina25
Summary: Nearly all of her friends betrayed her in order to bring Sasuke back. She was sold to the enemy. But was it truely all like it seemed to be? SakuraXItachi with slight SaiXsaku & NejiXsaku
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

„N-Naruto what are you doing?! Stop it!" Sakura shouted while she jumped back to dodge several dozen kunai flying in her direction. Unfortunately she wasn't fast enough so one of them hit her left leg and she stumbled backwards. The soft grass under her feet was soon drained in crimson blood. "Guys, please tell me why are you attacking me? What did I do wrong to make you so mad?" whispered Sakura desperately. Naruto went past Kiba and Hinata who watched her with a determined expression on her normally so peaceful face.

"Sakura I'm sorry but it's the only way to bring Sasuke back." the fair boy said without showing any emotion in his voice.

"What are you talking about? Why would attacking me bring Sasuke back?" the seventeen year old girl demanded to know. She was horrified because it wasn't the Naruto she used to know. He came back from another journey with the old hermit about a week ago and since that time he hadn't talked to her at all. And then, about half an hour ago he met her while she was on her way from the hospital back to her apartment. He wanted to talk to her and she was totally happy because she thought that she would finally get the chance to know why his last behaviour was so strange.

While they walked through Konoha he didn't gave her one of his trademark smiles nor did he say a word. When they reached the training fields the kuubi boy stopped and turned around to face her. The full moon above them drained everything in a metallic image and his normally so tanned and cheerful face seemed so old and sad that she shortly wondered if this was really the boy she spent her whole ninja life with. Then suddenly she heard a familiar sound coming from her right direction and she reacted immediately thanks to her well-trained ninja reflexes.

As soon as she looked in the direction where she had been only moments before, her face went completely pale. There, sticking in the soft ground, where the special shurikens she had given TenTen to her eighteens birthday. "Wha-What…." she whispered softly. " Sakura! " At the sound of the well known voice of Ino Sakura lifted her glance from the dangerous weapons to look out for her best friend. There, standing next to Hinata and Kiba, Ino watched her with a look of disgust in her ice-blue eyes. "What are you guys doing here?" Sakura asked with shock clearly evident in her voice and written all over her face. "You don't get it, do you?" Naruto asked, while he raised his arm to get ready for another attack.

So this is the story leading to her momentary predicament. She still didn't know why nearly all of her friends went suddenly crazy and threw kunai at her. While she was asking herself thousands of questions Kiba, Akamaru, Hinata, Naruto, Shino, TenTen, Ino, Lee, Shikamaru and even her former teacher Kakashi had formed a circle around her. The girl with soft pink hair tried to stand as straight as possible with the still bleeding wound bothering her body.

She slowly reached for her weapon pouch fastened to her left tight only inches over her blood covered skin. She noticed that all of them went immediately tense by the cautious movement of her dainty hand. The newly gained kunai pressed to the front of her shirt gave her a feeling of safety even though it was deceptive. She damn well knew that she couldn't win against all of them although she gained the rank of a Jonin only a few months ago. "Okay now tell me why you are doing this to me.", Sakura demanded to know. After a few moments of silence the silver haired jonin formally known as the teacher of team 7 sighed and started to speak.

"Look Sakura, when Naruto travelled with Jiraja they met Uchiha Itachi and they made a deal. In exchange of a skilled medic who can heal his damaged eyes he will attack Orochimaru's hideout and set Sasuke free so that he can go back to Konoha. Unfortunately you are the only one capable of healing him except for Tsunade but we can't trade her of course."

Everything went completely silent for Sakura. So this was it. All of her so called friends would exchange her without thinking twice to the next best psychological screwed up clan killer.

She dropped to the ground and let her long hair fall over her face to hide her facial expression. "Oh come on girl you always said you would do everything for your Sasuke-kun. Now you have she chance to set him free so stop crying!" Ino shouted with contempt in her voice.

Sakura's shoulders started to shake heavily and Lee stepped forward" I'm sorry to do this to you my lovely flower but it is the best for Konoha and for all of us so please stop crying."

They heard a strange muffled sound coming from the fallen girl and assumed that it was a hardly suppressed sob. But then it started to grow louder and louder until they could clearly hear that it was laughter arousing from the timid girl sitting in the middle of their circle.

Sakura struggled to keep her true feelings under her acted façade. "Oh really? Yeah, of course I understand." she managed to say between hardly contained laughing while she started to get up again. "The Uchiha kid is much more valuable then the small little weak Sakura. Oh yeah you can't imagine how much I understand that. I have always been completely worthless and will always be. So why not treat me like a piece of meat to get back the genius with the unique ability, the sharingan?! That's what you are trying to say right?!" Now she couldn't hold back a sob any longer but she wouldn't allow herself to start crying in front of these people!

"So you did understand after all, right? Now be a good girl and come with us so we can meet up with Itachi-san. I guess he's already waiting for us." Kakashi said with a voice sounding as if he was talking about the weather.

Sakura slowly started to walk in his direction. She was just too shocked to struggle against the so clearly shown superior force. Something inside of her was broken beyond repair. Her face was blank without any tears falling down her cheeks and she looked at the ground, not able to look in the eyes of her former friends.

"Sakura!!" Said girl turned her head slowly in the direction of a few bushes and her eyes widened when she caught sight of Neji and Sai running out of the woods towards the small group. " Sakura you have to run! They want to trade you to Itachi!" Neji shouted." We will buy you some time so run as fast as you can. We will catch up to you later after we have beaten these guys!" Sai added.

Sakura was speechless. So not everyone wanted her to go. She still had friends who would even go as far as fighting against their own superiors in order to help her. Slowly she looked back at Naruto and Kakashi, her own team members, smirked and whispered "Sensei, do you remember what you taught us on our first day of training? That people who don't care about their friends are even lower than trash? Think about it while I'm gone. Bye!"

The betrayed girl leaped backwards and started to run as fast as possible with her injured leg. She dodged several punches thrown at her from Hinata and answered with shurikens and kunais, equipped with exploding notes. Several loud bangs were heard and smoke filled the training field of the former and now forever destroyed team 7.

She hid her chakra trail so that nobody, not even Akamaru would be able to track her down and vanished into the wood without anyone being able to be detected, except for Neji thanks to his newly activated Byakugan..

Sakura was panting heavily after three hours of leaping through the impermeable forest. She was bleeding from different wounds all over her body because of several falls she had received due to her hectic behaviour.

_I can't continue anymore. I've lost way to much blood and I have to heal the wounds if I want to survive until sunrise!_She thought desperately.

_I have to look for a safe place before I can rest_Sakura stopped in front of a very large and old tree. You wouldn't normally see the hole in the tree trunk but Sakura has been in this area several times before while she was on missions given by her former Hokage Tsunade.

_Yeah right_ the lonely girl thought _my former Hokage_. She was a missing-nin now. She slowly made her way towards the small cave and started to climb in her new momentary home.

While she began to examine the deepest gash, caused by Naruto, she thought about the different reasons her former friends had to attack her.

Naruto was the easiest one. He just wanted to have his best friend back- It has always been like that. Sasuke and Naruto were best friends, the praised and strongest Genin team together with Kakashi-Sensei. And she, Sakura, the little girl with the big forehead and slightly higher intelligence than normal kids in her age had. She was just normal- neither a genius like Sasuke nor a boy with an unbelievable amount of chakra like Naruto.

But what reason did the other Ninja had to attack her? Kakashi had most likely acted for the same reason Naruto had.

But what's with TenTen? Or Lee? She always thought that he was deeply in love with her.

Oh how naïve she had been. Why hadn't she looked beneath the underneath like her sensei had always told them to do?

She made a grimace when she felt the skin next to her wound shrinking together while she poured chakra inside of it. She melted cells together and ordered new ones to arise to cover her torn flesh.

During the painful procedure she let occasionally whimpers slip past her tightly closed lips,

stubbornly suppressing tears of pain.

As soon as she had healed the worst injuries she took her leaf-headband away from it's place on top of her head and made a deep gash trough the once beloved symbol.

She stayed like that for a long time thinking about her next move when she suddenly remembered something really important. She had totally forgotten to think about Sai and Neji while she was running away as fast as possible.

Sai did say something about catching up with her after they have beaten the other ones.

But would they be strong enough to beat nine jonin-level ninjas? Of course these two were extraordinary strong but they were just humans. Would they even survive this fight? And if not what should she do? They would have died because of her, because she had been to weak to defend herself. And now she was here in safety crouched together inside of a tree trunk selfishly thinking about her own dilemma while her only friends were most likely dead?!

She had to go back, maybe she could still heal them.

She crawled out of her spot of safety, ready to head back again when she suddenly felt a very familiar chakra signature. It was weak but it was clearly evident and she nearly shouted out of pure joy. She ran towards the direction where she sensed the source of Sai's and Neji's chakra. She dodged several branches and jumped over deep holes in order to get there as fast as possible. When she dashed through a few thorn bushes, which partially ripped her clothes she stopped running at the sight of a beautiful clearing. Two figures were laying there obviously unconscious and she cautiously walked in their direction.

As soon as she was sure that it were the bodies of Neji and Sai laying there she started running again. But before she could reach them a dark figure appeared in front of her and she had to stop to prevent herself from crashing into him. As soon as she had gained her balance back and looked upwards she went completely rigid. In front of her stood Uchiha Itachi.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone!

Well this is my first story so I am kinda insecure if I should continue so please review and tell me your opinion. Yeah that's all I wanted to say so enjoy yourself now. XD

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

**Chapter 2**

„Y-You?! Sakura whimpered. Oh she was so dead. In front of her stood the legendary Uchiha clan killer and she had just looked him in the eyes. She would never survive such an encounter .But Itachi didn't move a muscle nor did he made an attempt to do anything. else. He just watched her with his crimson sharingan activated; his hair done in a loose pony tail blew in the cold wind of the full moon night. After an eternity of examining each other Itachi finally spoke: "You are coming with me to heal my eyes. Your friends and I made a deal you are not allowed to turn down."

His voice had broken her momentary rigidity and she slowly made a step backwards.

She swallowed hard. What was she supposed to do? She wouldn't be able to run away -that was for sure. And even if she would be able to successfully escape, what would happen to Sai and Neji? Her glance shifted towards the bodies of her only friends. She just couldn't let them down; not after what they had done for her only hours ago.

_I won't heal his eyes that's for sure- not after I have experienced what he is able to do with them. I can't flee without Sai and Neji so that option is dead too. I guess my only chance to survive is fighting him._ She furrowed her forehead. _Yeah that's the only thing I can do right now. And even if I die- I will die with the knowledge that I didn't gave up without giving him a good fight._

She moved her feet in a better fighting position. "I won't heal your eyes nor will I try to flee. I'll fight you until I win or die." She said without showing any emotion currently spinning in her messed up head.

Sakura could hear him gave a small snort- most likely the only tiny piece of emotion she would ever experience from this monster." Oh you want to fight me girl? I think that would be rather amusing but unfortunately I can't allow you to get hurt. You have to be in your best physical condition so you can heal my eyes." Itachi stated, the corner of his mouth lightly twitching as if he would suppress a smirk.

But now it was Sakura's turn to smile. "So you won't hurt me? Are you sure about that?!" While shouting the last sentence she hit him squarely in his flawless face.

Itachi stumbled backwards "Well I have to admit that was a rather nice punch Sakura." he whispered while he wiped a few drops of blood away from his lips but only distributed them all over his jam. He looked even more intimidating with the crimson liquid reflecting the moon light in his face.

Suddenly there was a squall of air and Itachi vanished. Sakura, remembering the scene with Sasuke from about four years ago immediately turned around; expecting him to stand behind her and to hit one of her chakra points so that she would be unconscious. But there was no one. Neither at her left and right side. She was tempted to hit the ground in order to control if Itachi had hidden himself inside the earth like Kakashi once had. But before her fist could meet the ground she heard a sound coming from behind her. She quickly turned around -how stupid she had been. There Itachi stood in all his glory examining her actions with a look of curiosity. "Having fun over there?" he teased her with his monotonous voice.

Sakura leaped forwards in his direction to hit him again but something stopped her. She had notices the reflection of the moonlight on metal-most likely a kunai. What surprised her most was that the dangerous weapon wasn't pointed in her direction. Itachi had lifted Sai in his arms and pressed the kunai against his throat. She immediately stopped and looked with horror at the drops of blood falling towards the ground. The white skin of the artist boy was covered in his blood.

"W-What are you doing?! Stop it! Stop!" Sakura shouted with a voice full of panic. She couldn't bear her friend dieing in the arms of her enemy right in front of her. Because of her.

"You want me to stop? Then give up Sakura. I will spare those boys as soon as you have agreed to our little trade." Itachi whispered but due to the wind blowing in her direction she was able to hear every sentence as clearly as if he would have stood directly next to her and had said those dreadful words while bending down towards her ear.

She shuddered just because of the image of being so close to him- her skin prickled as if she had felt his cold breath on her neck.

It was just too much. She couldn't let down her friends. She let slip her kunai through her now open hand and it hit the ground only moments before her knees followed.

She was bent down, crouching on the ground like a little girl who had lost her mother. Barley suppressing tears for the thousandth time this night.

"Okay you have won. I will come with you. But please don't kill them. Please I will do everything but don't hurt them." she pleaded.

Oh how much she hated herself at that moment. There she was at the ground pleading like a dog for food without any self-respect. She was just too weak. The strong ones would always rule about the weak ones. And Itachi was clearly the one who ruled.

Suddenly Sakura was thrown violently against a tree while a kunai was pressed against her throat. She let out a strangled sob shortly before Itachi started to speak again: "Remember your promise kunoichi- or I will make you remember it by myself when the time has come.

To make sure that you behave yourself while you are guest in our hideout I will take those two boys with me as well. They are weak so they won't cause any danger but obviously they are precious to you. Understood?"

Then suddenly everything went black. He had hit the same chakra point Sasuke had before he had left her on a cold stone bench. But Itachi wouldn't leave her- even if she wanted him to.

"Kisame" Itachi coldly said. "You can show yourself now."

You could clearly see a big figure emerging out of the forest loudly grumbling about how much he hated it to be crouched together for such a long time.

While Kisame started to stretch himself Itachi continued: "We will start travelling as soon as possible so we will arrive at our point of support before tomorrow. You will carry the hyuuga boy and the other brat. Understood?"

"Geez calm down Itachi. Everything went according to our plan so stop bitching around" Kisame answered annoyed. But suddenly he went completely rigid. Only inches over his head a kunai was stuck in a tree trunk, only recently thrown by Itachi.

"According to the plan? Stop fooling around! She fucking hit me in my (perfect- that would be funny but totally out of character XD) face!" Itachi hissed angrily.

Kisame nervously started to laugh "Yeah sorry I totally forgot 'bout that buddy"

Itachi looked at him and sighed: "Let's just go. I want to be back to report to Leader-sama as soon as possible."

He lifted Sakura's body and started to carry her bridal-style in the direction of the forest. As soon as Kisame had lifted the two boys and swung them over his shoulders they both started to run as fast as possible.

Sakura awoke due to dropping sounds disrupting her sweet slumber. Moaning she put her hands over her ears. Every morning she was awoken by this terrible sounds caused by her leaky water tap.

But suddenly she noticed a big headache pounding in her skull. Wanting to pour chakra into her head to lessen the aching feeling she noticed that her chakra levels were zero. Hearing a jingling sound coming from her arm she soon detected chains dangling from her dainty wrists. And then everything hit her. The betrayal of her friends, Naruto, the escape, Sai and Neji, Itachi and the deal she had made with him. She began to panic. Starting to jerk wildly at the chains which were supposed to hold her in place she was soon rewarded by the wall crumbling. Having freed herself she jumped up immediately.

She couldn't see especially much due to the little sunlight which currently barely lightened the cell. She could detect that nothing except for the little window was inside of the small room. It seemed like nobody had been here for several years. Stroking the wall she had to correct her assumption because of the dust that was clinging to her fingertips now. Most likely several decades. At the opposite wall was a heavy looking iron door. She would never be able to break through it without her chakra-filled punches.

Sighing she made her way towards the tinny window and tried to look outside but she was way too small for that.

Suddenly she could hear footsteps from outside the cell.

Quickly sneaking back towards the place where she had awoken at she put the ends of the chains inside of the holes she had created while removing them.

She laid down in the same position like before and faked sleep. Maybe the guy who would come inside the room would drop his guard when he thought that she was still unconscious

Clearly hearing the footsteps stopping in front of the door she scolded herself to breath even-that was quite hard to do due to her nervousness.

As soon as the door had opened she could see a lankly guy passing the threshold. He brought in a tray of food and moved towards her seemingly unconscious form. He bowed down to put the tray at the floor but that moment of carelessness was enough for Sakura to react.

She quickly rushed at him and hit one of his pressure points. Hard. He immediately crouched towards the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Grinning triumphal to herself she quickly inspected his pockets and was soon rewarded by a big iron ring with four keys dangling from it.

With one last glance at the mask-wearing guy she made her way towards the exit and passed the threshold. She cautiously shut the door but it made an ugly screeching sound nonetheless.

After she had securely locked it with one of the newly gained keys she looked towards her left and right direction. Before she would be able to do anything else she had to find Neji and Sai and they were most likely imprisoned somewhere here, too.

She turned towards her left side and crept towards the next door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Sakura cautiously lifted her right hand to put one of the four keys dangling at the heavy metal ring in the lock. It matched! But as soon as she tried to move it she was disappointed.

The rusty piece of iron didn't move an inch. "Okay keep cool" Sakura whispered to herself "you still have got two keys and one of them will definitely open this damn lock!"

She quickly switched the mismatching key with a similar looking one. Again it slid into the small hole without any problems.

When she tried to turn it to the left side it actually worked. The lock croaked under her hand as she slowly opened the iron door and cautiously looked inside of the cell.

It seemed to be identical to hers but she wasn't able to see anyone. _So Sai and Neji aren't here _she thought disappointed. To make sure that she didn't look over one of her friends she stepped inside the cell and moved to the opposite wall to check the dark corners she wasn't able to see through

But as soon as the door made a clicking sound, showing that the lock was closed again she felt a figure creeping behind her back. Before she was able to turn around a dirty hand had already found a place at her throat. "Give me your key or I will kill you" threatened a weak, but determined voice. A voice she was very familiar with. "Sai!" she shouted but quickly lowered her voice again. "It's you? How are you? What happened to you?" She felt the pressure at her throat immediately vanishing. "Ugly? It's you?" Sai asked confused. "But how did you get the key?"

Sakura, having turned around to face her friend, smiled and answered:" Well I did the same thing you wanted to do right now but my attempt was actually a bit more successful."

Sai chuckled" Yeah seems like that".

Sakura grinned back at the pale boy standing in front of her.

She would have never imagined that she would get along with him so well after all the bickering and arguing their relationship had started with.

It had all begun with this picture he painted.

Flashback

Sakura let drift herself lazily in the warm water of the lake she discovered weeks ago. It was quite a long way to reach it but it was worth every drop of sweat she gave away on her way to this place.

It was wonderful. All around her were beautiful plants blooming in this warm summer day and animals like rabbits came here regularly to drink the clean water from the small lake.

It really was a harmonious end of a tiring training day. She dipped under water for the last times that day and then slowly emerged brushing her middle long hair out of her face.

As soon as she had left the warm water she felt cold in the evening breeze. Sakura quickly reached out for her towel which was securely positioned on a thick branch.

After she had dried herself she quickly put on her stinking training clothes.

She turned up her nose. She obviously had sweated quite much today.

Shrugging her shoulders she started to make her way towards the small path she had created during her numerous visits.

But suddenly she heard a weak noise coming from a few bushed. Judging from the volume it was neither a rabbit nor a grown-up wolf.

It was definitely a human. Turning red from the image of an old geezer sitting behind these bushes, watching her swim while his nose was a waterfall of blood she created a shadow clone that stood at the place she had been currently before.

Sakura quickly vanished and appeared only meters behind the human form she could clearly see now.

Rushing at this person with a very unlady-like scream she immediately pinned him to the ground only to look at the face of her team mate. "Sai?" she asked dumbly. Said boy turned up his nose. "Ugly you are stinking. Could you please get up?".

Sakura now totally red again answered angrily: "So you watched me while I took a bath? Hentai!" shouting the last word she gave him a slap on the face.

"What are you talking about? I didn't watch you you idiot. I painted the clearing like I do nearly every day since I came to Konoha. I discovered this lake way before you did so get up already!" Sai all but shouted.

Sakura now totally embarrassed slowly stood up again. "I'm sorry I didn't know-"Sakura started to apologize but was soon interrupted by Sai"It's okay. Let's just forget 'bout that"

Hesitantly the girl started to nod.

Feeling an uncomfortable silence occurring Sakura started to talk to him again "What exactly did you paint?" Sai after examining her face for a short time answered" I can show it to you if you are really interested."

"Sure" Sakura said cheerfully.

The dark haired artist bowed down and lifted a small worn out sketch book up, leafed through it and stopped when he saw she picture he had painted today.

"Here." he plainly said. She quickly grabbed the small book and started to examine the beautiful picture of the clearing. "Wow!" she breathed "it's perfect"

Sakura was too caught up to notice the small blush forming at the cheeks of her team mate.

"You can have it if you want. I don't know what to do with it at all. "He nonchalantly said.

"Really?! Oh thank you so much!" she happily said moments before she gave him a big hug.

"What are you doing ugly? You are totally stinking so stop it!" the pale boy chukeled, a smile forming at his thin lips.

End Flashback

Remembering the peaceful days in Konoha she let a small sight slip out. Sai looked at her quizzical but she just shook her head.

"Do you know what happened to Neji?" Sakura hesitantly asked. She was clearly afraid of the answer.

"No. The last thing I remember is fighting TenTen, Naruto and Lee. When I dodged a few weapons thrown by TenTen I saw a dark figure arriving at the battle field. I looked his way and saw something crimson in his face. Then everything went black." Sai explained.

"What happened to you? I thought you were able to escape?"

Sakura let herself sink down to the ground closely followed by Sai and started to tell him what happened after she had left the training field.

"So we have to find Neji and escape from this place!" She finished her story.

"Alright, let's go!" Sai agreed immediately.

They got up again and crept to the door, slowly opening it with the key. But they weren't able to prevent the same croaking sound it had caused by Sakura's entry to occur again.

As soon as they had closed the door and safely locked it they made their way towards the left side. Stopping every few meters to listen to imagined sounds only to realize that nobody except for them was down here they soon reached another door.

Cautiously trying to open it with one of the two remaining keys Sakura silently prayed for Neji to be in there. Even thought the key opened the door without any problems they were soon disappointed. The cell was empty except for a small broken chair lying in one of the dark corners.

Sakura hurriedly inspected it and found a few iron nails which could maybe be used as some sort of weapon.

She cautiously removed them and put them back in her empty weapon pouch- Itachi had emptied it of course- before she walked outside of the cell and they moved on towards the door at the opposite side.

If Neji wasn't inside of this damn cell their whole plan of escaping would be screwed up.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Sakura hesitantly let slide the final key in the last door of the hallway they were currently standing in.

It matched like predicted and as soon as she turned it around she could hear Sai impatiently stepping from one foot onto the other one and back again.

He was as nervous as she was right now and it didn't surprise her. Her two boys had gotten really close- after all they were in her proximity nearly all of their free time so they couldn't avoid getting to know each other.

Sai, having given Neji the nickname "Barbie" the first time he got to see Sakura's friend and sparring partner, soon started to show him the same smile he had saved for the pink haired girl-his real one.

Neji was, except for the nickname, happy that another boy was added to their little group-it was much more fun for him to spar with Sai than with Sakura. It wasn't like Sakura was too weak or anything like that- he just couldn't hurt her because she was a girl and he was really old-fashioned. So he tried to dodge her attacks. But when she actually was able to hit him it always hurt like hell and he would have a large purple bruise on one of his eyes for several days.

So it was an improvement for him- mainly concerning his flawless face

Wanting to know if the pale-eyed boy was really in this cell Sakura stepped inside of it, closely followed by Sai. As soon as they saw a large figure lying in the right corner they started to rush to their friend. Neji was enchained, just like Sakura had been and seemed to be unconscious. They both crouched down on their knees and Sakura started to gather her minimal recovered chakra to heal his worst injuries.

But as soon as her chakra started to mix with his body she jumped away from Neji.

"Crap" she hissed. "Sai be careful that isn't Neji"

"What are you talking about ugly? Of course this is Ne-"

"Oh" they could hear an amused voice interrupting Sai "so you noticed, yeah?"

The body of Neji had opened his eyes and chuckled. "Thought I could do better. But Itachi was obviously right. You are a good medic-nin after all, Sakura. Maybe that is why you were able to kill Sasori-danna"

Slowly the brown hair of their friend started to turn fair, his eyes were suddenly a bright blue and he started to get up.

"Well I think I should introduce myself again-judging by your faces you don't remember me.

The name's Deidara. I used to be Sasori's partner – up until you killed him, brat!"

Deidara shouted and lunged at Sakura with a kunai ready for slicing the pink haired girl into pieces. _Maybe some kind of late revenge,_ she thought. Sakura, having been prepared for an attack quickly sidestepped him and skilfully throw the nails she had drawn out of the broken chair in his direction.

Deidara, not counting on being attacked with weapons of any sort was soon nailed to the opposite wall.

"What was that? You aren't supposed to have any weapons, yeah!" Deidara nearly pouted.

"Oh just shut up Blondie" Sai spat. "Nice one, Sakura" he added a bit more friendly.

"Uh thanks I guess…" she answered, still a bit shocked because of the sudden attack she had nearly received.

"Alright, now tell us were Neji is!" Sai hissed at Deidara.

"Yeah, right. Why should I do such a thing? Itachi would kill me without anyone caring 'bout my death" the blond man answered bored and seemingly uninterested.

Sakura, lifting her head so that her face was only inches away from Deidara's, grinned widely. "You want to know why you should tell us where our friend is?"

While she was talking to him she grabbed the kunai that was still positioned in his right hand and then continued.

"Well, ya know, I think I know some things that will persuade you." she said with an overly cheerful voice while spinning the kunai she had stolen around her index finger.

Deidara, having clearly understood the hidden warning, swallowed hard.

"Uh that's a kinda difficult choice. Ya know, being killed by a teenage girl or by the legendary Itachi Uchiha…" Deidara stated without finishing his sentence.

"Like I have already said, I know ways to persuade you." Sakura threatened. She slowly lifted the kunai and touched the warm skin directly next to his artery. Deidara flinched at the cold feeling of metal against his neck and swallowed again.

Due to the movement of his throat his skin was pressed against the sharp weapon and the first drops of blood started to flow down his neck, soon being hidden inside of his Akatsuki cloak.

Deidara, now getting really nervous – he was sweating quite a lot – continued to act nonchalantly. Sakura, impatiently like always, removed the kunai from it's threatening spot and lifted it even higher. She had to tiptoe but reached the top of his head nonetheless and buried the metal weapon behind his high-held pony tail.

Then, with a strong jerk she cut his beautiful Ino-like hair. Grinning sweetly she held the quite large amount of soft fair hair in front of his face and enjoyed the look of utterly shock and horror currently clearly visible in his facial expression

Sai, standing behind her, let a small snort of amusement slip out of his tightly closed lips.

"Y-you cut my hair! How dare you, yeah!" Deidara shouted.

"I am such a klutz sometimes. I'm so sorry." Sakura said with a total lack of emotion.

Sai started to chuckle again but stopped as soon as he had received a threatening look of Sakura.

"And believe me that is not the only thing I can cut off from your body. Other parts may be a bit more painful to remove but I am sure I will be successful." while she said that she adjusted the kunai a bit lower to emphasize which body part she meant exactly with these words.

Deidara swallowed again. Harder this time. "Okay okay. I will tell you, yeah."

"Why, thank you Deidara-kun" Sakura teased him. "That's so nice of you."

Sai loudly snorted but didn't say a word. Sakura had always been the best of them when it came to interrogation. The few days of training with Ibiki had paid off after all.

"Itachi knew that you wouldn't flee without your friends. So he has given Tobi, the idiot who was supposed to watch you, the keys for the basement. He most likely knew that you would knock Tobi out without any problems and then search for your friends.

Well, you obviously found one of them- I was supposed to act like this Neji-guy so I could follow you and tell Itachi what you are up to do next." Deidra explained hurriedly. "The other boy is imprisoned in the upper level of this building. He's inside the room directly next to Itachi's so you have to be very quiet if you want to escape without him noticing."

Sakura nodded to herself while he was speaking. "Okay. So first of all we have to get ride of Deidara. Sai, it's your turn!" She commanded.

As soon as she noticed that Sai didn't move a muscle she sighed and added: "Please?"

Sai, now satisfied, moved towards the struggling blonde and quickly hit him in his face.

"Sai!" Sakura scowled at him. Sai snorted again and finally hit one of the pressure points at his neck.

Deidara, knocked out cold, made a rather interesting image because of his new hairstyle. The pink-hair girl had cut off nearly everything except for the long hank still hanging over one of his eyes.

Sakura quickly scanned through the contents of his pockets and was soon rewarded by another three keys tagged to an iron-ring.

Then she carefully removed the nails from the blond man and put them back inside her pouch. Maybe they would be of use later again.

Sai waited for her before he left the cell and closed the heavy door again. They were so used to it that they didn't even notice the croaking sound anymore.

"Okay Ugly, what now? Search for the staircase?" the dark-haired artist asked Sakura as soon as the door was locked again.

"I guess." she answered unmotivated. Sai, standing closely by her side, cautiously laid one of his palms at her cheek. Softly caressing her he whispered "Cheer up Sakura. We will find him and then we can finally escape. We will stay together as missing-nins and nobody will be able to capture us ever again." he assured her.

Sakura had to fight her tears because of the care he showed to her.

Sai normally wasn't an emotional person and so she knew how much this simple act actually meant to him.

Smiling and blinking her tears away she leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his left cheek.

"Thank you Sai" she honestly said before she turned around and insinuated him to follow her.

They quickly made their way towards the direction they had originally came from and soon stood in front of the stairs which would lead to the first story of this building and hopefully to their friend. The staircase was of a dark wooden colour and seemed to be quite old. Here and there you could see small holes inside of the individual steps, making the whole construction seem to be very insecure.

Before they started to move upwards they stopped in order to control if they could detect someone walking on the upper stories but they weren't able to hear anything. Sakura was the first one to lay step on the wooden stairs and flinched as they gave away a croaking sound. _Why does everything in this fucking building_ _has to croak_? She angrily asked herself.

Sai followed soon after her and again she had to flinch. They behaved like bulls in a china shop. It would be some sort of miracle if nobody was able to hear them but right now she just wanted to be up there. They decrepit state of the staircase really was quite alarming.

Hurriedly reaching the last step she cautiously looked around.

"Can you see anything" Sai asked immediately.

"No. There's nothing." she answered as quiet as possible.

She could see a large hallway with several corridors leading in nearly every direction. Everything was held in dark colours such as black and brown and the only light was coming from two tinny windows at the left and right wall.

_Akatsuki people sure like cheerless places__, huh?_ Sakura thought to herself while she inspected everything with a sweat drop forming on her forehead.

She could see a kitchen, held in dark blue and brown, furnished with a big wooden desk in the middle of the room and with several chairs positioned around it. Fortunately nobody was in there or else they would have been immediately detected.

They cautiously moved towards one of the corridors and searched for some clue where they could find Neji. Concentrating on the different chakra trails inside of this building she could feel Sai's chakra closely next to her, as well as some other ones. The biggest one was fortunately coming from outside so he was maybe away to do some training or whatever else he wanted to do outside.

Sakura actually didn't want to know the details. She detected another chakra coming from her right direction and she immediately tensed. _Itachi!_ she thought but soon remembered what Deidara had told them. And really, there, next to Itachi's she could feel a very familiar but unusual weak chakra signature.

She let out a sigh of relief. So they had finally found Neji.

Now they only had to rescue him.

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Well that was chapter 4 for you! Please review! 


	5. Chapter 5

Hey there everyone! So here's chapter 5 for you.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto!**

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**Chapter 5**

Konoha

„You did WHAT?!" Tsunade yelled. Naruto, having lifted his hands to cover his ears, tried to explain what had happened.

"Well, ya know it may sound a bit strange at first but you have to understand-"

"You traded my student to our enemy! Sakura is captured by Uchiha Itachi only because you wanted to have your stupid friend back! What else do I have to understand!?"

Tsunade continued to yell.

The beautiful blond woman had received the news of the deal between Itachi and Naruto only moments ago and was totally hysterical.

Naruto, still standing in front of her desk lifted his right hand again and wiped with his orange sleeve, covering the back of his hand, over his face -every time the Hokage was exited about something she had a very wet articulation.

And right now she was definitely exited.

She had thrown her chair out of the newly repaired window; the wall held several more holes due to her powerful punches and secret files were randomly distributed all around her office.

"Tsunade-sama please let me explain why-"

"Just shut it Naruto!" The Hokage snapped up. "Leave my office! Immediately!"

"But-"

"Don't you dare to object! I said immediately!" The desperate woman commanded with her voice raised.

The fair boy slowly turned around and shuffled towards the big wooden door. His shoulders slouched he left the office without looking back at the broken woman currently crying about her lost student and adoptive-daughter.

As soon as Naruto closed the door he was promptly hugged by Hinata. The timid girl had confessed to Naruto several months ago and he, openhearted like always, had started an affectionately relationship with her.

He quickly hugged her back, happy to have someone by his side and they stayed like that for several minutes.

After a long time of silence she finally asked: "How did Tsunade-sama react? I could hear quite loud sounds coming out of her office."

Naruto, breaking the hug cautiously, answered with a throaty voice: "She was totally appalled by what I have done to Sakura. I wasn't able to tell her about the other part of the deal I made with Itachi."

"Don't worry Naruto. You did it all for her. As soon as Hokage-sama will be informed about it, your name will be exculpated from the accusation of betrayal. And Neji and Sai will look after Sakura as good as you would have done." Hinata assured him

"Yeah" he answered while he looked at her lovingly. "I just wished I would be able to experience her return but I soon have to leave-I still have to fulfil my part of the deal and you know I will most likely not be able to return to you two." While he said the last words he cautiously stroked Hinata's belly.

"Yeah. I know that." Hinata answered and hugged him again, crying silently.

Akatsuki Base

"Sai!" hissed Sakura as quiet as possible. "Can you sense Neji's chakra in the room over there, too?

"Yeah. What do you think? I'm not stupid or anything like that, Ugly." Sai answered grimly.

Sakura sighed: "Ya damn well know that I didn't mean it like that. We can argue about things such as those later, okay?"

Sai just snorted so she continued. "We have to be careful. Like expected Itachi's room is directly next to Neji's so we have to be super-quiet. Understood?"

The artist just gave her a look which clearly told her that he wasn't amused about the way she treated him right now.

"All right. I will assess that as a yes. So here's the plan. You will stay here and watch for some way to escape while I sneak into Neji's cell and rescue him. As soon as you can see me coming out of this room you will start to move towards the exit and I will follow you. We have to leave this building as fast and as quiet as possible. Okay?" she whispered into his ear. Fortunately they were crouched together in a corner so she didn't have to tiptoe to reach his head. That would have totally destroyed her look of authority.

Sai slowly nodded so she started to get up and sneaked towards Neji's cell. She silently cursed her lack of chakra. It all would have been so much easier with a few genjutsus to use to lessen the sounds they made or just to vanish inside of one of these dark walls.

Shaking her head to free herself from such unhelpful thoughts she quickly reached the

black-painted wooden door.

She cautiously searched for the newly gained keys inside of her weapon-pouch and promptly scratched herself on one of the rusty nails

Cursing silently she lifted her right index finger towards her mouth, sucked the blood which was already pouring down her skin away and continued her search.

Having been successful she examined the lock and then the three keys dangling from the metal ring.

One of them looked exactly like the one of the four she had stolen from this Tobi-guy, so it was most likely not adapted for this one.

The second one was painted golden, just like the lock so this was clearly a possible opener.

The third one, from a silver colour, was way too small to match into such a big lock so she decided that the second one was the fitting key.

Slowly sliding the small piece of metal into the lock she happily noticed that this was definitely the right one.

The door opened without causing any sound-obviously this one was oiled way better than the doors inside the basement- and she quickly stepped inside of the small room.

The walls were painted in a dark red colour and the only furniture decorating the cell were some small black chairs and one heavy-looking black couch. She could detect Neji's figure lying on the ground -their capturers obviously hadn't seen a reason to lay him on the comfortable looking sofa.

The pink-haired girl cautiously made her way towards the body of her friend while pausing nearly every second to eavesdrop for any sound caused by the habitant of the neighbouring room. Not able to hear anything she reached Neji and immediately started to check his wounds.

No one was especially big or especially dangerous so she started to lift his unconscious body over her right shoulder.

Huffing due to the enormous weight currently pressing on her dainty form she sneaked back towards the door.

Looking in her left and right direction she could detect Sai standing next to a small but open window. She clumsily made her way towards the dark-haired boy and as soon as she had reached him she shifted Neji's weight onto Sai's shoulder.

Not able to protest loudly the artist just gave her a very evil glance and then gestured towards their future exit.

Sakura, smiling sweetly at him, put her hands on the dark window frame and started to lift herself up and as soon as she had reached the top she silently jumped downwards. They were on the first floor so it wasn't an especially long way until her feet touched the ground again.

Sakura hurriedly inspected her surroundings in order to check if the owner of the enormous chakra trail was outside here but fortunately he seemed to be still at the other side of the building.

Now being able to see the place she had been held prisoner in she was quite surprised. It looked like a lovely country estate with its white coat of paint and pretty flowers blooming in several pots distributed all around the large garden.

Obviously their current location was somewhere inside of a forest because she could see trees everywhere. A small trail could be located a few metres away and she supposed that it would lead to the next village- even criminals needed something to eat after all.

"Hey!" she could hear Sai's voice hissing from above. "Mind giving me a hand?"

Sakura had to suppress a snort as soon as she detected Sai. He was dangling from the little window with Neji's yukata-like shirt between his one hand, barley able to hold his weight any longer with only his right hand clutching to the window frame.

"Sure." she whispered back and positioned herself so that she could catch Neji without any problems as soon as Sai would release his garment.

Due to the sudden added weight of her pale-eyed friend she landed on the ground with Neji lying on top of her.

Huffing slightly she tried to crawl away but stayed pinned down nonetheless

She tried again to get away but suddenly she could detect a sound coming from her unconscious friend. Obviously the downfall had finally awoken him.

"Neji." She hissed. She could hear a grumbling sound coming from above her. "Neji!" she tried again.

Said boy slowly opened his eyes and looked totally dumbfounded at the person currently lying under him.

"S-Sakura? What-?" he started but was immediately interrupted by Sai who had jumped down shortly after his fall.

"Barbie! Get up. You are crushing her."

Neji immediately jumped up and extended a hand to help Sakura.

The pink-haired girl gratefully accepted his help and was soon standing between the two boys.

Before Neji could start asking any questions Sakura had already started creeping towards the earlier detected trail.

The boys looked at each other, shrugged and started to follow her as quietly as possible.

As soon as they had reached the border of the forest they started running.

Little did they know that a shadow-like person followed them, smirking secretly to himself.

After several hours of non-stop racing through the forest, which was abundantly covered with vegetation they finally slowed down.

Totally exhausted all tree of them tumbled down like sacks of potatoes and stayed like that for a while, panting heavily.

"So" Neji started between taking in large breaths of the fresh air "would you mind telling me what happened while I was unconscious?"

"Well, Barbie while you were asleep we escaped out of our cells, gave this Deidara-guy a new hairstyle and rescued you out of a room directly next to Itachi's." Sai explained flatly

Neji, shooting the artist an evil glance said:"Sakura, mind explaining what really happened?"

"Well" Sakura started while tipping her index finger against her chin "actually Sai said the truth but it was quite shortened. I will tell you the whole story somewhere along the way but right now I am way too exhausted."

Neji grumbled but stopped pushing for an explanation.

Sakura, slowly standing up again looked towards the sky. It was a beautiful orange-reddish colour. "I love sunsets." she simply stated but both boys were silently agreeing with her.

"I think it will be best if we rest here for today. We will continue running away from everyone tomorrow okay?" She half-jokingly said but wasn't rewarded by any laughter. She could only hear some small sounds, most likely signs of acceptance.

She laid down between her two boys again and soon fell asleep due to her exhaustion.

She was awoken by quiet snoring sounds produced by Sai who was laying at her left side with his face turned in her direction. Neji, laying at her right side, had most likely drifted towards the source of warmth he had felt and was currently laying quite close to her dainty form.

She laughed softly- she was used to sleeping next to Neji and Sai so she wasn't bothered by the closeness anymore. After all they had solved countless missions together.

Slowly getting up she noticed the first sunbeams of the new day starting to arise at the skyline.

Smiling again she started to stretch her aching muscles but soon had to wrinkle her nose.

She was stinking again. Glad that her boys hadn't awoken before her and noticed the quite disturbing odour she quickly made her way towards the small river they had passed by yesterday.

Reaching it she stripped down to her underwear and cautiously laid her black shirt, which had replaced her red one some time ago as well as her remaining beige skirt and black shorts on the hard soil.

Stepping inside of the cold river water she started to untie the bandage which covered her ample bosom and threw it in the direction of her other clothes.

Now, standing in the middle of the little river she started to wash away the sweat and dirt that had collected itself during her stay in the Akatsuki base.

Enjoying the wonderful feeling of cold water on her battered skin she let a sigh of pleasure slip through her lips.

Washing her middle-length curly hair she inspected her reflection in the quiet water.

She had grown up quite a lot. Fortunately her bust size wasn't as large as the one of her teacher-such a large bosom sure would be hindering during a fight.

Remembering Tsunade she quickly lost the happy look on her face. The wound inside of her which the betrayal of her home town had caused was still hurting.

Suddenly she could detect a sound coming from a few bushes to her left side.

Smirking slightly due to a strong feeling of deja-vu Sakura covered herself up and said loudly:"Neji, Sai you can come out now. I know that you are over there."

But after a few moments without an answer she could feel goose bumps forming on her ridge.

Cautiously stepping out of the water she hurriedly dressed again and then turned around to get back to their camp as soon as possible.

But she wasn't able to. In front of her stood Itachi Uchiha. Again.

Said man smirked. "Going somewhere?" he asked her nonchalantly.

Sakura, having recovered from the shock of him standing directly in front of her, hissed back:"Actually, yes!"

Lifting an eyebrow Itachi suddenly vanished. He reappeared behind her and pushed her against a huge tree.

Turning her around so that she would be able to face him, he secured both of her hands over her head and leaned forward.

Sakura, taken by surprise didn't struggle against his firm grip. But as soon as he had leaned forward she quickly turned her head away from him.

_Don't look into his eyes, don't look into his eyes, don't __– _her trail of thought was soon interrupted by Itachi. He had lifted his remaining hand and turned her head around again.

"Sakura." he whispered "Why did you run away? I thought that we have made a deal?"

His quiet and even voice let shivers run down her spine.

"You didn't really believe that I would do what you told me to, right?" the pink-haired girl hissed with a voice full of venom.

Itachi chuckled "Yeah, you are right. That's why I was able to follow you immediately after you had left the base." While he said that he let one of his knees slip between her legs.

"So you knew from the beginning. Why didn't you stop us?" Sakura asked, nervously looking down at his leg.

"Oh come on. That's an easy question." he answered her while smirking again. "I am a predator, Sakura. I like to hunt."

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Can you see that wonderful little button on the left side of your computer screen? Plaese review! 


	6. Chapter 6

Hi! I need your help with something. I have gotten a request to change the main pairing into NejiXsaku. What do you think about that? Should it stay ItachiXsakura or would you like something else better?

On with chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters.

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Chapter 6**

Sakura swallowed hard. There she was, pinned against a tree by Itachi Uchiha in a very intimate position. And she couldn't do anything. Again.

Still trying to avoid direct eye contact she concentrated on his face. And had to smirk. There, at his left cheek was a dark purple bruise-most likely caused by the punch she had given him when they had first met.

Itachi, noticing her change of thought positioned his knee even higher between her tights

Sakura, slowly getting really nervous due to their proximity lost her smile and struggled against his firm grip but as soon as she noticed Itachi leaning even closer she stopped.

_Crap_ she thought _I can't do anything. Again._

She wasn't able to move an inch with his hands securing her in place. Feeling tears trickling in the corners of her eyes she quickly blinked them away. _Don't show him your weakness, don't show him your weakness, don't_- while thinking that she suddenly had to suppress a snort, Oh how stupid she had been. She wasn't inside of this strange building for several hours now and she had never gotten the idea of checking her chakra levels.

She had rested quite al lot so they should have recovered enough to fight this asshole.

Cautiously concentrating her chakra into her fingertips she could see his crimson glance shift towards her hands. Of course, you couldn't hid something like that from a sharingan user

"What are you do-"but soon he was speaking to air which had replaced her presence in the space of one second.

Sakura, having simply shaken off his hands and hurriedly jumped on a large twig above her was enjoying the look of utterly shock on Itachi's face. Thanks to her perfect chakra control she was able to hide her trail almost completely.

Most likely he thought that she had shifted her place with something and was currently running away as fast as possible.

He would never think that she had just jumped away. She smirked again.

Let's see who the prey is now!

Silently climbing the tree she made a shadow clone and sent it towards another tree, a few metres away from her momentary position.

She let the clone snap into her weapon pouch and directed it to throw about five rusty nails in Itachi's direction.

He didn't move an inch and was soon hit by the shot, but he disappeared with a puffing sound.

_So he made a shadow clone, too. I wonder where he is_. But this question was soon overdue because he reappeared behind her shadow clone and sliced it with a kunai.

_Well_ Sakura thought _obviously his eyesight is really bad- he couldn't even detect that that one was just a clone_

Jumping towards the neighbouring twig, away from Itachi she slowly reached into her weapon pouch. Taking out one of the nails she aimed it towards a few bushes at her opposite side. As soon as the metal had touched the leaves and had caused a sound Itachi's form vanished from the tree again and reappeared closely by the place she had thrown the nail at.

Happily glancing back and thinking about how stupid the Uchiha-killer really was she started to make her way back towards her camp to fetch Neji and Sai.

After a few minutes she reached the temporary campsite. The two boys were still sleeping soundlessly so she cautiously moved towards them and started to shack Neji.

He awoke with a start and looked strangely at her. "You okay?" she asked him. He slowly nodded and started to get up. Sakura shifted towards Sai and repeated the procedure. He reacted in the same way Neji did.

Shaking her head about the two so similar boys she started to tell them about her encounter with Itachi earlier this day.

"And can you believe that they used to call him a genius? He's way stupider than Naruto. Even he would have noticed that trick!" she finished while chuckling.

But she immediately stopped as soon as she saw the glances Neji and Sai gave her.

"I am not stupid!" they synchronistical said. "Huh?" Sakura made confused "what are you guys talking about?"

It finally sunk in and she jumped backwards "Oh come on, please not you again!" she depressively sighed.

Both of the boys smirked and then puffed away. At the place Neji had been before stood Itachi Uchiha.

"What have you done to them?" Sakura demanded to know.

"Don't worry. Deidara and Tobi have taken them back towards the base." Itachi blankly said.

"By the way if I were you I would avoid Deidara for a while-he's quite angry 'cause of the new hairstyle you gave him."

Sakura just snorted and looked at him sourly. "Don't tell me what to do!" she hissed back.

Said girl rushed toward him and tried to kick him in the groin but he was way too fast for her.

He sidestepped her and put a kunai next to her throat. "You are coming back with me, immediately."

She huffed darkly and bit him into his hand as hard as possible. Itachi flinched for a short moment but soon got his balance back and strengthened his grip.

His blood dropped down on her black shirt and made wet, dark stains. She smirked. At least she had been able to hurt him-twice already.

Something the great Sasuke hadn't solved so far

Now getting really angry Itachi hissed:"Stop it already! We made a deal, Sakura. And I won't allow you to turn it down."

The trapped girl continued to struggle but wasn't able to hurt him again. He had moved his hand away from her range and positioned his body directly behind her. She could feel his muscular chest pressing against her back and shuddered. She didn't want to be so close to him.

Itachi who was able to feel her discomfort scouted even closer to her petite form. Slinging his other arm around her hip he pulled her closer to his body and whispered into her ear:" What are you going to do now? You promised me that you would do everything I wanted you to do. You have the choice- you can just heal my eyes or I will ask you for another favour."

Sakura swallowed hard. "And what favour would that be?" she forward asked.

She got her answer immediately as his hand started to move downwards under her skirt and between her tights.

His action set Sakura's teeth on edge and she started to jerk around. Her legs snapped together in alarm but this action served only to press his hand closer. She could feel his index finger pressing through the material of her shorts and her panties and into the dip where her entrance lay. Blood rushed to her face.

"S-Stop it!" she shouted "I will heal your eyes, but stop it!"

Itachi slowly drew his hand back and smirked darkly.

Turning her around so that he could face her he did a hug-like gesture and whispered into her ear, with the kunai still pressing against her artery: "We will start tomorrow morning. Be prepared. And now I will lead the way back. Follow me and don't try anything stupid. I can detect your chakra without any problems."

Sakura gulped but nodded nonetheless.

They arrived at the estate after a few hour of extremely fast leaping through the forest

They circled the building until Sakura could detect the entry. A neat wooden door with white lacy-curtains.

_No wonder that nobody has been able to find the Akatsuki-hideout this far. Who would assume such a secret place to be in the middle of a forest, looking like the house of your own grandma?_ Sakura thought depressed. _As soon as I am free I will tell Tsunade about this and then she will send ANBU to investigate-No _she laughed sadly _I won't be able to tell her. I will most likely never be able to speak to her again. I'm a missing-nin._

Itachi stepped onto the doorstep and fished a silver key out of his pocket_. Hey_! Sakura immediately recognized this one. _I have got the same key. So this one is for the entry!_

She smirked._ Not bad. Maybe it will be useful later on._

Itachi meanwhile had opened the door and held it open so that Sakura had to pass him in order to get inside. She moved away as far as possible while she passed the threshold but her shoulder touched his chest nonetheless. With goose-bumps clearly visible on her arms she stepped inside and was welcomed by dark walls, dark furniture and dark people.

_Well, I am home again _she thought sarcastically.

Several people stood in the entrance hall; Deidara, with a deep red face, most likely due to hardly suppressed anger, the strange Tobi-guy with the orange mask still covering his face,

a man with a plant over his head and the shark-like man, Gai had told her about so much. She firstly couldn't remember his name but after a few seconds it recurred again: Kisame.

They all looked at her like she had grown a second head. Huffing sullenly she turned away and showed them her right shoulder while folding her arms

Itachi meanwhile had closed the door again and positioned himself at her left side so that she had to face him.

Rolling her beautiful green eyes she turned around again and faced the opposite direction.

She could clearly hear sounds of amusement coming from the other Akatsuki members. _So Itachi isn't especially popular._ Sakura thought while smirking to herself.

Itachi ignored the disrespect she was currently showing him and ordered: "Deidara. Show her to her new room. And be careful, she's kinda tricky."

_Bastard!_ She thought _He damn well knows that Deidara is totally angry at me_.

Her presumptions were soon confirmed when he saw him gleefully smirking while Deidara slowly made his way towards her.

She had to bit hardly on her lip to suppress herself from calling him by a very unlovely term of endearment. Deidara promptly stood in front of her and his pout somehow resembled Naruto's when she wouldn't pay for his ramen bill.

Smiling slightly at the memory of the good old days she followed Deidara.

They made their way towards the group of men standing in the hallway and Sakura noticed a very strong odder coming from Kisame. _Uh, he smells like fish gone bad_. Barley able to suppress a gagging sound she quickened her footsteps and was soon walking directly next to Deidara. He didn't pay any attention to her except for an assessing glance. They moved through several corridors until they reached a staircase. It was black, which didn't really surprise her. Everything in this house was black, brown, red or dark-bluish. Except for the white curtains she had seen from outside.

She wondered who had put them there. The image of Itachi hanging it up while wearing a white apron suddenly occurred to her. Snorting audible she could see Deidara turning around and giving her a confused glance.

"What's so funny, yeah?" he asked her suspiciously-maybe he thought that she had laughed about his hair. He seemed to be quite sensitive about that subject. "Nothing. Just a funny thought." She quickly assured him.

Slowly nodding he started to climb the staircase and was followed by Sakura. As soon as they had reached the top Deidara turned around and moved towards several doors to his left side. Stopping after the third one he opened it-it was black of course- and stepped inside. The room was quite similar to the one they had found the real Neji in. Red walls, black furniture. But she got a big bed with black silk sheets and a desk with several medical books lying on it.

_Could be worse_ Sakura thought while remembering her cell in the basement.

She slowly made her way towards the wooden desk in order to study the books.

Deidara had already closed the door and seated himself on her bed. Answering to the quizzical glance he had received from Sakura he said: "Itachi told me to stay with you so you won't be able to escape again."

"Okay…" she stated unsurely. She wasn't really comfortable with this man watching over her all the time.

But she shrugged her shoulders nonetheless and continued to examine the books Itachi had placed there. They all held the same topic: Eyes. She wasn't really surprised and knew she would most likely have to read them but she was way to fidgety right now.

Looking back at Deidara she contemplated about what to say to him. She never had been one to enjoy silence like Sasuke or Kakashi had.

Finally having some sort of sudden inspiration she cautiously walked over to him. "You want me to cut your hair properly? It's looking a bit messy right now…"

She received a cold glance "Oh really? I wonder why?" he sarcastically answered her.

"Look I am sorry but it was the only way to leave this base." Sakura honestly explained to him.

Deidara examined her for a few seconds and then slowly nodded. "All right. It can't get worse I guess…" She searched for her kunai in her weapon pouch but noticed that it was vanished. Most likely due to Itachi. He must have stolen it during their fight in the forest.

Grinning sheepishly and explaining the lack of cutting-instruments she was rewarded by a small snort given from Deidara.

Maybe this guy wasn't that bad after all.

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You want me to add a bit of DeidaraXSakura? Or would that be too many pairings for one story? Need your help so please review! ;) 


	7. Chapter 7

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews but you really have to tell me what pairing you would prefer. SakuraXItachi NejiXSakura SaiXSakura DeidaraXSakura or something totally different? Tell me ;)

On with the story:

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Chapter 7**

After minutes of securing Deidara that she wouldn't kill him with it he lend her one of his kunais and she started to cut his hair. After a few minutes of silence except for the sounds his hair made when the sharp weapon separated it Sakura soon got bored.

Like mentioned before she was somebody who enjoyed animated conversations. Trying to start a friendly chat she asked him: "So, why did you join the Akatsuki?"

Maybe that wasn't the perfect question to ask somebody who had loved to kill you one hour ago but she was really curious about that. He seemed to be quite normal so why would he join such a badass organisation?

He hesitated a few moments before he answered. "I didn't join willingly. Itachi kinda forced me because the needed my talent, yeah."

"Talent?" Sakura repeated quizzically.

He smirked and slowly showed his closed hands to her. "Huh?" the pink-haired girl made as he tardily opened them and she could see tongs coming out of the slits.

"Woah!" she whispered and leaned closer to Deidara to examine the fine mouth at his palms.

"Can you eat with them? ". As soon as she had said that she regretted her words. That was most likely she stupidest and most infantile question she could have asked him.

But Deidara just laughed softly when he noticed the small blush that had creped over her face.

"Well, yeah but I usually just use my normal mouth to eat. Just imagine eating with your hands while you are in a restaurant. All the guest would totally panic, yeah."

Sakura chuckled "Yeah I can figure that."

A comfortable silence occurred again and she concentrated back at work. To make a good hair-style out of this mess wasn't easy after all although Ino had showed her how to cut hair perfectly years ago. While thinking about her former best friend her happiness vanished again and Deidara glanced at her carefully. "You okay, yeah?"

Faking a cheerful smile she answered:" Sure!" and signalled him that she was ready with cutting his hair. He stood up again and moved towards one of the small windows at the one side of her new room to eye his new headdress.

Obviously satisfied he turned around and walked back to her bed again. She still sat on it so she moved a little for him to make comfortable.

He flashed his typical Deidara-grin and sat down closely next to her.

But suddenly the door opened and Itachi entered her momentary prison. Seeing those two sitting so closely next to each other, he hissed: "Deidara you can leave now."

Slowly getting up Deidara gave Sakura an apologizing glance and left the room but not without glaring at Itachi when he passed him.

Itachi closed the door with much more force than he would have needed to. Gulping due to the anger he currently seemed to emirate Sakura lifted her hands from their former position in her lap and hugged herself.

"What do you want?" she demanded to know as unfriendly as possible. "No need to get bitchy." he said with his normal monotonous voice. "Just wanted to see if you are alright with Deidara watching over you."

"Yeah. I'm okay with that." she coldly answered. "I like him way better than I like you after all." She just had to add that. And she was soon rewarded by a hardly noticeable change in his facial expression. His jaw clinched and his eyebrows were furrowed together lightly.

"Well, I will leave now. Read the books I have selected for you." and with these words he turned around again. But before he had closed the door completely Sakura swallowed her anger and asked him: "What's with Neji and Sai? Are they okay?" Looking back at her he whispered threatening: "As long as you behave yourself they are fabulous."

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Yeah I know that was quite short but holidays are over and school starts tomorrow again so I have to study. I just wanted to update today so I hope you can forgive me! ;)

Cya serafina25


	8. Chapter 8

Hi everybody!

Well I firstly want to thank you for your great reviews! They are really motivating me to update sooner then I actually wanted to. Like mentioned before school started today (5.11.07) and I still have to do homework but I will just delay it for now! ;)  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

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Chapter 8**

Konoha

"Geez, cheer up Ino!" Shikamaru said annoyed. His date was currently slouching in her stair while eating her third hot fudge sundae in the space of twenty minute. And she would have been way faster if the waiter hadn't been so lame.

The owner of the small café they visited nearly daily for the last few days so that Ino could eat her favourite ice-cream was a nice and friendly man but he was really fat. And that made it so difficult for him to move around due to the small gaps between the tables. "How could I?" she mumbled with her mouth full of whipped cream. "My best friend was kidnapped by one of the most dangerous men in the whole fire-country. And Sakura actually believes that I wanted that to happen!"

She paused to shallow and continued with a softer voice. "I can't forget the glance she gave me before she tried to escape. There was more than fear and sadness in it."

She looked at her boyfriend with tears in her beautiful blue eyes: "She hates me" and then she started crying.

Shikamaru sighed. "Ino I told you like everyday that she doesn't hate you. But in her opinion we all have betrayed her. As soon as she knows what has really happened she will forgive us." While he comforted her he added: "We planned everything exactly like it happened. Sai and Neji will look after her. They promised that at our last conference. Don't you remember?"

Ino, whipping her tears away slowly nodded. "Yeah. Naruto told us was had happened with Itachi. And about the second part of the deal he made with him."

"Exactly. So you know that we can't do anything. But…I will miss Naruto nonetheless."

"Yeah, so will I" Ino sadly confirmed. But that didn't detained her from ordering a forth sundae.

"Uh." Shikamaru made "Troublesome!"

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Well can you guess what the second part of the deal is? I hope not 'cause I really want it to be surprising when I write it! But any suggestions are welcome!

* * *

Akatsuki base

_The retina is one of the "target organs" that are damaged by sustained __chakra pressure. Subjected to excessively high chakra pressure over prolonged time, the small chakra vessels that involve the eye are damaged, thickening, bulging and leaking._

_Early signs of retinopathy correlate less well with mortality and morbidity than used to be thought, but signs of accelerated or "malignant" chakra pressure indicate severe illness_

_Most patients with __sustained chakra pressure retinopathy present without visual symptoms, however, some may report decreased vision or headaches._

"Uh!" Sakura sighed and closed the heavy book again. She had been reading this crap for several hours now and she really was totally toasted at the moment.

Sighing she stood up from the uncomfortable chair she had been crouched together on and stretched her aching muscles. Several of her bones made cracking sound and she dozily made her way towards her bed. Sliding beneath the silky blanket she cuddled her pillow and soon was sleeping dreamlessly.

She awoke with a start as soon as she could hear someone opening her door. But due to her hectic movement her right food was captured in the blanket and she made an unintentional stunt. Glaring at the smirking Uchiha who was standing in the doorway she stood up again with as much dignity as possible in her current situation. She had verbatim thrown herself at his feet and she cursed her clumsiness soundlessly.

With his face straight again he entered her room and made himself comfortable on her bed.

Still glaring at him she moved away as far as possible and soon was sitting on the edge of her actually quite big queen-size bed.

"You know" he started amused "it will be hard for you to examine my eyes from over there."

Sighing heavily Sakura hesitantly moved towards him again and put her index-fingers at his temples. "Good morning by the way." he simply said. Looking strangely at him to detect his bad intentions this seemingly so nice words surely held, she unwittingly got a good look at his face. He had flawless bright skin, thin lips, exceptionally long eyelashes and beautiful red eyes due to his constantly activated sharingan. She had to shallow hard. Itachi just reminded her so much at her first love that she couldn't bear to look at his face for longer periods.

Avoiding direct eye-contact she answered silently:"Yeah. Good morning."

Itachi just nodded and indicated her to start the examination. Obeying hesitantly she soon forgot the world around them while closing her eyes and sending chakra into his reddish-glowing ones. She could feel him slightly twitching due to her proximity. The feeling of foreign chakra inside the one's other body was never a comfortable sensation. Not that she tried to make it enjoyable for him. She had intentionally forgotten the basic medical things you learned already as a beginner-use as little chakra as possible to make it more comfortable for your patient was just one of them.

Pressing a huge amount of chakra into his system she could feel him twitching again but she could also detect a wet feeling at her fingertips. She smirked. It must really be displeasing for him to sweat so much. Enjoying her momentary power over this so dangerous man she started to concentrate back at work. Nearly everything in his eyes was damaged due to his sharingan. Like she had read last night the sustained chakra pressure destroyed the small vessels. "Do you sometimes have an aching feeling in your skull when you have used your sharingan?" she professionally asked. "Yeah." he simply answered.

_My, aren't we talkative today?_She thought sourly.

Retire her petite hands from his head she stood up and moved towards her desk. This action was less meant for reading in the books than for getting away from him again.

Opening one book nonetheless in order to make him think that she wanted to glean she thought about what she should tell him. Having formulated a plan in her head she turned around and started:" Due to the constant flow of chakra to your eyes the visual nerve is strongly damaged. The smaller vessels are partially destroyed and have to be repaired as soon as possible. I advise you to stop using your sharingan until everything is completely repaired."

Itachi didn't look exactly pleased because of her tip but he nodded nonetheless. Sakura, internal jumping of joy because his strongest weapon would unnecessarily be delayed watched him closing his eyes. As soon as he had opened again she had to stop herself from rushing to him and hugging him. He looked exactly like Sasuke's older version standing there and waiting for her. Gulping her emotions down she spoke up again, still looking in his black orbs. "I have to reread the important chapters but I think I will be ready until tomorrow. We can start the healing sessions tomorrow evening if you are okay with that" she politely offered_. Just don't let him get suspicious_ she inwardly thought while saying that.

"All right. I will be there." Itachi said after thinking about it for a few minutes.

Before he had had turned around to the door completely Sakura cautiously said: "Itachi I've got a request."

Looking back at her he signaled her to continue with raising his perfectly shaped eyebrows.

"May I see Sai and Neji?"

He watched her facial expression change from hope to confidence and back again. It was actually quite funny to observe.

"Follow me." he finally said.

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Hey again I just wanted to add that I have received two votes for pairings until now:

SaiXSakuXNeji :1

SakuXNeji: 1

You would prefer other pairings? Just review! ;)

Cya serafina25


	9. Chapter 9

Hi everybody!

Here I am again with a new chapter of The treachery of Konoha. Oh, by the way I noticed that I've totally forgotten to give Sakura something to eat- well let's just say there was a big tray of fruit in her new room, okay? ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

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Chapter 9**

Sakura had to restrain herself from jumping up and racing past him through the open door. Instead of that she cautiously moved towards him and passed the threshold without giving Itachi a second glance. As soon as she stood in the hall she remembered her good intentions she mumbled a quiet "Thank you." and looked at the floor, seemingly afraid of his power.

If he thought that she had capitulated he would maybe drop his guard and that would be her chance of escaping. She just had to inform her two boys about the plan she had panned during her unwilling detention in the base.

Slowly following Itachi, who hadn't said a thing to her ever since his last two words, she inconspicuously looked at her surroundings. She had to know this building as good as possible if she really wanted to escape successfully this time. Since they had left her room they had made their way back towards the direction of the staircase Deidara and Sakura had passed only yesterday. But instead of going down at the ground floor they passed it and continued to follow the brown-painted floor. Surprisingly the pink-haired girl could detect a few plants decorating several corners all over the corridor. Silently wondering to whom this lovely looking flowers belonged she didn't notice Itachi stopping in front of one door and promptly walked into him. "Shit!" she hissed before she regained her balance and straightened her face. "Sorry." she quickly and shyly mumbled. She currently reminded herself at Hinata during her worst times.

Itachi shock his head as if saying that he hadn't expected anything else but this stupid and clumsy behaviour. Inwardly burning with anger she slowly rubbed her aching forehead. This man had a hart chest-that was for sure.

"One of them is in here. You've got five minutes." All the pain was suddenly forgotten when Itachi took out a firm-looking black key and opened the lock of the dark-brown door. She quickly rushed past the Uchiha and brushed his shoulder. But right now all her good intentions were left behind so she certainly wouldn't apologize for that.

Quickly stepping inside of the small cell she first had to get used to the darkness inside. You couldn't see a thing in here, not that the hallway had been lightened by anything. It seemed like all the light this huge building ever got to see was the few glimpses of sunlight which would rarely be able to pass the lacy curtains.

But after a few seconds she could make out the form of a body crouched together in one of the corners and after a few steps into the left direction she was kneeing besides Neji. Looking back at Itachi she signalled him to leave her alone for now-not that she really expected him to value her privacy but he left the room nonetheless.

Starting to examine the unconscious body of her best friend she noticed several bad wounds, most likely inflected by Deidara and this masked Tobi guy. Concentrating at an especially deep wound only about one inch over his abdomen she started to make different hand signs and soon her hands were glowing in the same green colour her sparkling eyes normally held.

Quickly melting cells together she was relatively soon rewarded by a small groan coming from the pale-eyes boy. She could detect him flinching due to the awkward feeling her chakra inflicted inside of his body. Quickly retiring her hands from their momentary place at his naked chest she moved towards his face and crouched over his head.

As soon as he had opened his eyes slightly she made a squeak of joy and hugged the poor boy with bone-crushing strength. Due to the coughing sounds Neji produced Sakura quickly released him and smiled warmly at him. "I'm glade to see that you are alive." she happily stated. "Well I've got to agree with you, I guess…" Neji answered with a sweat-drop. Maybe there would have been better ways to express her momentary feelings but she just didn't feel like acting in front of her friend. She would save the show for Itachi.

Noticing Neji looking around she started to explain what happened so far. "So I have only got about two minutes left to tell you what I have planned up until now." she finished her hurried speech. The pale-eyed boy had nodded a few times during her rant to show that he was listening but now his face lost the contemplating look and he solemnly watched her. Sakura noticed this change of behaviour and asked: "What's up with that expression? I haven't started yet so listen first and then complain about the weak points of the plan, okay?"

She was kinda sour since she had really strained her brain in order to create the perfect escape and now he wouldn't even listen to her.

"Look, Sakura, I don't think we should try to flee again. Maybe you should just heal his eyes and then we will see what happens next. I am pretty sure that he will release us." Said girl looked at him with wide eyes and mouth open like a stranded fish. "You want to surrender?!" she shrieked. "I made myself seem like a fuel in front of the enemy for nothing? I cut the hair of that stupid blonde freak just because he would look better? I was able to turn out Itachi's strongest weapon with a totally stupid explanation just to give up? I don't think-"But she was interrupted by the door flying open.

There stood Itachi with eyes red and his chest rising heavily due to hardly suppressed anger. _Crap_ Sakura thought and judging by Neji's facial expression he was thinking about the same lines. "You know" the pink-haired girls started with a surprisingly controlled voice "eavesdropping is a bad habit." If looks could kill Sakura would be have been dead instantly after she had said those dreadful words.

Not saying anything he rushed inside of the dark room and made his way in her direction. Sakura quickly switched into her favourite defence position with arms raised and chakra filled. But instead of lunging at her he made a shadow clone which positioned itself behind her and the real Itachi made his move and attacked Neji. Said boy was still weak so all he could do was put up a pathetic fight as soon as he was pressed against the wall by the powerful sharingan-user.

Sakura was captured by the shadow clone but fought against him with her beloved strength. Due to his position behind her he was able to avoid her powerful punches and instead of him she hit the wall which instantly broke down. Before she could turn around and lunge at him again she was pinned to the meantime well-known chest of Itachi. Even thought it was just a shadow clone he had this powerful aura which made her shudder. "Well, kunoichi, I guess you will tell me what's really wrong with my eyes." she could hear the real one saying from behind her. The clone turned himself around so that she would be able to face the authentic Itachi. The view which appeared in front of her made her gasp for breath. Neji was pinned against the wall with his feet dangling several inches above the ground. The Uchiha held him high with his hand around his neck, hindering the windpipe. "Unless you want your friend to die." he added with a cruel grin.

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Well that was chapter 9 for you! Hope you like it. I'm really glade that I have gotten so many reviews with suggestions for the different pairings:

SakuraXItachi: 6

SaiXSakuraXNeji: 5

DeidaraXSakura: 2

NejiXSakura: 2

SaiXSakura: 1

I would love to get even more reviews and votes so please tell me what you would like!

Cya serafina25


	10. Chapter 10

Hey again! Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! On with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

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Chapter 10**

Instead of the predicted capitulation of his prisoner Itachi was quite confused to see the dainty girl smirking. "You know, that's an old trick." she just said and vanished. Itachi tried to detect her through the darkness of the room but something was wrong with his sharingan. Normally he was able to see nearly everything with it but right now he could only detect several different shadows-he just wasn't able to see this stubborn girl anymore.

_Crap_ he thought. _What did she do to my eyes during the examination? My eyesight is even worse than before!_

He still pressed the byakugan-boy (don't know how to spell that! please tell me so I can correct it if it is wrong.) to the wall and couldn't move away unless he wanted to release his hold on the windpipe of Neji for a short moment. He was pretty sure that Sakura would take advantage of that even if it was just a second of carelessness.

He gave up searching for her shadow-like form and concentrated at his surroundings. Even though Sakura was excellent in suppressing her chakra trail she would make a mistake sooner or later.

Meanwhile said girl was pressed next to a wall and performed several different and complicated looking hand signs. She had found a scroll of secret jutsus during one of her countless tries of cleaning up the Hokage-archive. Not that she had stolen them or anything like that-she had just borrowed a few and forgot to give them back until she was able to master three of them. Now silently thanking her inner-self who had quite stubbornly told her to leave the feelings of guilt behind while she had packed the scrolls inside her pouch she did the final sign and was soon able to perform a highly pro-like genjutsu.

Feeling her chakra spinning over Itachi like some kind of silent sand storm she moved towards the sharingan user to detect if her with training spent nights had finally paid of.

Grinning happily while waving her hand in front of his face she cautiously lifted his strong hand away from Neji's neck. Itachi was inside of some kind of parallel world right now and due to her earlier performance of genius-like potential she prevented him from using his strongest weapon. Due to several caped chakra-lines inside of his eyes she was able to move his arm as freely as she wanted to. Smirking like a little girl who had found the hiding-place of the candies she positioned his arm over his head in a coward-like position. If someone would find him like that-Deidara for example- they surely wouldn't let him live that down. The great Uchiha covered in fear because of a girl-even though it wasn't exactly true but she was sure that the other Akatsuki members could care less.

Stepping away from her former kidnapper she kneed down to help the coughing Neji up again. He had landed on the ground as soon as Itachi had released his hold on him. He nodded a thank you to her and then moved his glance towards the stone-like body of the Uchiha.

Itachi was still waiting for Sakura to make her move. It seemed like she had been vanished completely and forever but of course that wasn't possible. He still had Neji pressed against the wall and this girl would never escape without her friends. She was way too loyal to leave them behind. Concentrating back again he got quite cynical about this whole situation. Would she really be patient enough to wait for such a long time? That was totally untypical for her earlier showed character. _Maybe she has used some kind of genjutsu. After all she has cancelled my sharingan so most likely she had planned that from the beginning. _Itachi angrily thought. But then a sweat drop appeared on his head. _Oh shit. I have never learned how to annihilate genjutsus. I've always counted on my sharingan during situations like that._

Gritting his teeth he tried to remember his lessons in the academy. But he had been way too cocky to actually listen to what their teacher told them about cancelling genjutsus. "Crap!" he hissed. "That girl tricked me. This time for real!"

To confirm his suspicion he slowly released the long-haired guy. But he didn't move an inch. He stayed hanging over the ground what made a rather strange view. So he really was under the influence of one of this damn jutsus. Concentrating again he made a few basic hand signs-the only ones he could remember- and whispered "Kay" but nothing happened. Obviously her technique was way to strong to be removed such easily.

He had to wait for someone else to push chakra inside his body to release the genjutsu again. Oh, how he hated that girl at the moment.

Sakura noticed the strange glance Neji gave the stone-like body of Itachi but didn't pay any attention to it. "Well, I think we have to take his keys and then try to find Sai." _That's some kind of déjà vu experience _Sakura thought with a sweat drop forming at her forehead. _I just hope we will be more successful this time. _

From the corner of her eye she could see Neji moving towards the Uchiha and putting his palm at his arm. "What are you do-"but her yell came to late. Neji had already pushed his chakra inside of Itachi's body. That would instantly remove the jutsu she had anathematised him with. And truly to her thoughts the Uchiha quickly moved his arms back into a fighting position and looked confused at the pale-eyed boy standing next to him with his hand still touching Itachi's sleeve. Said man had tried to remember some long lost memories when he had suddenly felt the presence of unknown chakra inside of his body. Having clamped to it he was able to reach reality again. But he would have never thought that Sakura's friend would help him recovering again. Suspiciously he shook of Neji's hand and moved backwards to contemplate the current situation. He had always been one to plan every nut, bolt and screw.

But right now he didn't seem to be the only one who was more than just confused. Sakura was staring at her most likely ex-best friend and opened and closed her mouth like some kind of fish. A pink fish.

Snorting due to the absurdity of the moment Itachi received a half hateful and half sad glance from the pink-haired girl.

He had already seen her once with that look in her beautiful-he had to admit that- green eyes and that had been when her friends had betrayed her, He had watched every move of them from behind a bush to examine her strength and personality before he would meet her personally. But it was different to actually see her standing so closely in front of him and nearly crying. "Why-Why have you done that, Neji?" he could hear her whisper softly. Surprisingly he could feel some kind of pity inside of his heart. But it soon vanished when he saw her straighten up again-her moment of vulnerability had obviously passed. "So you are one of them. You want to have Sasuke back in Konoha again? He's a traitor, Neji!" she shouted but then she calmed down again. "But…so are you, aren't you?

Itachi could exactly see how much Neji was hurt by her words. But he had to admit that she was obviously right. Leaning back to enjoy the show he continued to watch.

"Sakura, please…" the boy started but was immediately interrupted by said girl's cutting voice: "Don't you dare to make excuses! I have seen it with my own eyes! We would have been able to escape if you hadn't helped that idiot!"

Itachi twitched "Hey!" he hissed. "I'm standing right here so don't call me an idiot!"

But he wasn't noticed at all. Sakura continued her speech:" I thought you wanted to help me to get away from Itachi. But it was all a plan, right? You were ordered to act like you would protect me to come with me. Inside of this base to watch me. To hinder me from escaping and breaking the deal?" with the last sentenced her voice was low and broken. She obviously had surrendered.

_Finally_ Itachi thought _but it didn't go like we have planned_. _She shouldn't have known that Neji and Sai are participating in the deal I have made with Konoha._

He heavily sighed and stepped forward again. "Come with me. We will go back to your room for now." As predicted Sakura slowly nodded. This part of the deal had obviously put her over the edge and she didn't struggle when he laid a hand on her shoulder and carefully pushed her towards the door. Looking back at the beaten boy he could easily see how depressed he was right now. But Itachi just gave him one of his cruel smirks and continued to lead the way after having closed the door again.

_Well, let's just see how I can use that for my advantage._

* * *

Kakashi heavily sighed and closed his favourite orange book again. Ever since Sakura had been captured he was quite depressed. Reading his perverted book without her running after him and scolding him just wasn't the same. He laid down at the roof of the Hokage-building again and watched the clouds passing by like he had done million times before. Hearing a loud yell coming from inside the building he sighed. _Here you go again!_ He thought lazily while he slowly got up and jumped through the open window. It had been repaired only hours ago and he really hoped that it would last longer this time. After all it was the money of the village which was spent for it and they could surely invest it better. In the library for example.

Receiving an evil glance from Tsunade he changed his slouched posture and straightened up again. Lazy or not he was still a ninja and that currently drunken woman at the other side of the table was his Hokage. "How may I help you, Tsunade-sama?" he asked overly polite. Since Sakura had left the village the only person who could rudimentary replace her spunky personality was her master, so Kakashi often tested Tsunade's capability of good-placed punches. He had to admit that she was nearly as strong as his former student. But only nearly.

Faking a smile he listened to her slurred answer:"I want you to rescue Sakura, im-imediately!"

Sighing again he slowly answered:"We have discussed that already, Tsunade-sama. Sakura will come back soon but right now we can't do anything. It was Naruto's biggest wish to have his two team-mates reunited again."

"Yeah, I know that, Kakashi! But I don't want to loose Naruto nor do I want to loose Sakura."

"Mhm." the grey-haired man said and looked out of the window towards the sunset "neither do I."

* * *

Hope you liked it! Having any clues about the second part of then deal? The presumptions I have received so far are good but they aren't completely right ;)

Votes so far:

SakuraXItachi: 11

SaiXSakuraXNeji: 8

DeidaraXSakura: 2

NejiXSakura: 4

SaiXSakura: 1

It may seem like I have crushed the idea of NejiXSakura but don't worry. I still have some tricks in my bag ;) Just vote and you will see ehat I am able to do!

Cya serafina25


	11. Chapter 11

Hi everybody! Well I have gotten so many wonderful reviews that I wanted to answer all of them. I will do that now so if you are not interested just scroll down; there will be nothing important concerning the plot. ;)

**CosenAngel:**I totally agree with you! They really seem to be bastards but just wait for the next chapters; maybe you will change your opinion ;)

**sasukeztruelove** Well, you seem to be a really NejiXSaku lover… unfortunately I have received quite many IachiXSaku votes so far. But I will count your voice twice nonetheless.

**Starlight - Wild Koneko** Glade you like my story. Thx for your review!

**KairiSakuraTohru**I love your name ;) I'm a huge fan of them. Your vote will be counted.

**borisbear: **I'm glade to see that the betrayal seems to have been quite convincing. But like said before just wait a few chapters and it will all be revealed. Maybe ;)

**pinky101**: Oh thank you so much. Ever since the first chapters you have reviewed like every time I have updated. ;) love ya and hope you will stick to my story

**narutocraze1233**Well I try to update as soon as possible so sometimes within one day ;) Glade you liked the part with the genjutsu. I just thought it would be funny to make Itachi have a weak point ;) thx for your all you reviews

**InARealPickle** lol ;) your review really made me laughing! But don't worry it will all be better later on. So I guess you have to continue reading my story. But your vote will be counted nonetheless. :)

**fifi46227** Thx for your review ;) I love them, too!

**TeenageCrisis**Thx for your reviews so far and well I hope you continue reading my story ;)

**Crazedchocolatefan: **Woah I love chocolate! Dark is my favourite one. Doesn't really interest you I guess but I just had to add that when I saw your name ;) Oh and thx for your review!

**aznkitty180**Well your guess is quite good but not completely right. Fortunately 'cause I would have to think of a new ending if anyone guesses right! ;) thx for your wonderful reviews!

**Mayumi Crescent Moon** Since it hadn't been my idea to change the main pairing into SakuXNeji it was quite surprising to me how many fans of this paring are outta there ;) Thx for your wonderful, motivating reviews and cya ;)

**NightWing101**Your guess was quite right but not totally so I don't have to change the ending so far. Ya know when someone's guess is right I have made it to obvious and that would be boring to all of you! Thx for your reviews and the cookies! They were yummy:)

**cherryblossom222: **Agree with your statement but just wait ;) Itachi isn't a saint, too :)

**Uniquely Ironic**Like your name :) Thx for your vote!

**Deidralvr**: Wow, thanks for your reviews! Glade you like my story. The idea of SakuXsasu is quite good. Thanks for the idea I will consider it and don't worry it didn't sound faked! Oh and by the way since you seem to be a Deidara fan: Sorry to have cut his hair :) Cya soon!

**al2010**I am so glade to have you reading my story. You are like reviewing every chapter since the beginning and I really wanted to thank you for that ;) Your idea of making NejiXSaku main pairing is quite popular by the way so I guess they have to thank you for that :) love ya serafina25

All right thanks to everyone who have reviewed and/or read my story this far! Here's the next chapter:

**

* * *

Chapter 11**

As soon as Itachi had closed the door he could feel Sakura starting to shack heavily. _She obviously cared about that boy. She didn't want him to see her crying…_ Itachi thought while observing her petite form.

Sakura meanwhile hated herself for getting attached to Neji. She really loved him. She had often wondered if her feelings for him were deeper than just the friendly ones she had begun with. But she always had pushed those thoughts away as far as possible. Ever since the betrayal of Sasuke she had promised herself to be strong and alone. When you are lonely you can't get hurt-she was sure of that. Unfortunately, about one month after Naruto had left for training the second time she had surprisingly- she wasn't really sure anymore if that had really been by coincidence after all- meet Neji after training her taijutsu.

Flashback

Panting heavily Sakura punched a gaping hole in the cliff. She closely watched the boulders crashing down at her and dodged them all with ease. Smiling satisfied she let herself fall down towards the ground. She put her palms on the by now uneven soil and let drops of sweat pouring down her chin. She had trained for several hours in the wildness of the forest and was totally toasted mostly because of the brutal shining of the sun-30 degrees above zero was really hot for Konoha. Letting herself fall back and watching the clouds slowly pulling ahead she thought about her current situation in her home village. Her parents' day of death would be the day after tomorrow.

The scar in her soul had not long since started to heal even thought it had been nearly one year ago her parents had been killed while taking a walk inside of this forest. Their bodies were found brutally slaughtered and quite rotted several days later.

After Sakura had received the news her whole world had silvered like a mirror in front of her eyes. Ever since that day she had sealed herself off from her surroundings and fellow men completely; even her foster mother Tsunade wasn't able to speak with her properly. She had concentrated on her training and was rewarded with surprisingly strong results.

Sighing heavily she lifted her left arm and looked at her dainty wrist. You could clearly see a long white scar drawing over her artery. After all her outer wound had healed- not completely but she knew that this reminder at her darkest times would stay there forever, just like her memories. Slowly getting up again she made her way towards the nearby river to wash her sweaty face. While she dashed through several bushes and jumped about twiners she suddenly heard a sound coming from her left side. It sounded like shouting. She quickly changed her direction and rushed towards the cause of the noise.

She soon arrived at a small clearing and hid behind a large tree to inspect her surroundings; after all several people had reported signs of Akatsuki activity lately. But she immediately relaxed as soon as she could detect the source of the sounds. Just like her only a few minutes ago Neji was training heavily. He was obviously practicing his taijutsu as well because she could detect several trees laying everywhere. Moving her head slightly towards her right direction she skilfully avoided a deadly kunai thrown by said boy. A few strands of pink hair were falling towards the ground nonetheless.

"Geez, Neji-san! It's just me, Sakura!" she hissed while emerging out of her hiding place. She didn't really know that brat and she actually tried to avoid him as often as possible. They hadn't spoken at all since their mission in suna and she would like it to stay exactly like that. "Oh. Sorry." was all he said. It only happened rarely that Sakura got angry at anyone since her parents' death but right now she could feel her blood boiling. She couldn't stand that man ever since his fight with his cousin, Hinata. He had totally embarrassed said girl and it was just thanks to Naruto that she had recovered her self-confidence again.

So she lunged at the surprised boy with all her frustrations she had gathered since several weeks. After Neji had received a hard punch at his face he quickly reacted and fought back. They were both exhausted due to their training and only attacked with hands and feet but they were wounded quite heavily nonetheless. They continued dodging and attacking each other for what seemed like forever and it kinda looked more like a skilful dance then a brawl.

But while Sakura was dodging a punch thrown by Neji her left foot got caught in a small gap and she stumbled backwards. The Hyuuga boy immediately reacted and used her accident as an advantage. She couldn't really blame him for that-she would have done exactly the same after all.

He lunged at her and floored her with him sitting on top of Sakura. His hand secured hers and he stopped her head from moving around and biting him with his other hand. They both were panting heavily and looked into each others eyes. "You have improved." he simply stated but his voice had a husky sound nonetheless. Sakura suddenly got aware of the intimate position and the former ideas of spiting into his face were soon forgotten.

"Thanks, I guess…" was all she could say while watching his facial expression changing and a soft smile forming at his thin lips.

An awkward silence occurred until Sakura softly harrumphed and said: "Would you mind standing up again? You're kinda heavy, ya know?" Neji blushed slightly and quickly stood up. He extinguished his right hand and Sakura reached for it. She was pulled upwards and due to the power of the jerk she stumbled against his chest. She blushed as well and wanted to retreat again but was secured in place by Neji. He had hugged her tightly and whispered into her ear. "I'm sorry because of your parents' death." She didn't say a word but he could feel her shaking softly. He cautiosly stroke her hair and mumbled comforting words. He didn't know that it was the first time Sakura had cried since she had received the news of her parents' murder.

After that they have met regularly in order to train but after a short amount of time you would only meet those two together. After Sai had been added to their little group the whole village was overflowing with rumours about the tree of them, mostly concerning sexual themes. But they didn't care. All of their real friends knew the truth-they were just alike so it wasn't really surprising for them to get along so well.

End Flashback

While they were going back towards her new room Itachi noticed Sakura staring at her left wrist and cautiously stroking it_. Okay, what's she planning now? I hope she won't kill herself or anything like that…That would be highly unpleasing._

Sakura meanwhile was thinking about what she should do next_. Neji talked about healing Itachi's eyes and then being allowed to go. _She swallowed. _And he must know after all. He was informed what the deal is about so he has to know the details._

Turning around the corner she whispered slowly: "I will heal your eyes." Itachi quickly tried to catch a glimpse of her facial expression to detect the hidden meanings of this words but her face was blank. "Why would you suddenly-"but he wasn't able to finish his sentence. The timid girl beside him had turned and stopped while looking into his eyes. "You have to agree to several conditions I decide." The man beside her rolled his ebony eyes. "Oh come on, why would I do something like-"but he was interrupted again. "You will attack Konoha together with me. We can add Deidara to our group, too, but I want to have revenge for what they have done."

She stopped and avoided his gaze but then continued with a more determined voice. "They are not the only people who can betray. I can betray them as well."

She looked into his orbs again. "I want to join Akatsuki."

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Well I hope that was some kind of twist. I have never said who would betray whom, did I?

Ya know, the treachery of Konoha can mean two things:

-Konoha betrayed someone

-Konoha was betrayed by someone

And you all assumed that Sakura had been betrayed. (Imagine very crazy laugher)

Well, let's just see how the story continues. Actually I myself don't know. I just write what comes into my mind, except for the second part of the deal ;)

Here are the votes so far:

SakuraXItachi: 19

SaiXSakuraXNeji: 10

DeidaraXSakura: 4

NejiXSakura: 9

SaiXSakura: 1

SasukeXSakura: 1

SakuraXNobody: 1 That was requested, too, so yeah ;)

Cya, serafina25


	12. Chapter 12

Hi again! I'm glade that you didn't expect the last twist of the story and liked it! Here's another chapter after the answers of course so just scroll down if you are not interested ;)

**CosenAngel**Hi again! thx for your review and your encouragement. You were my first reviewer for chapter 11 so I was happy when I received a positive review about Sakura's change of mind. ;)

**fifi46227**Hey! Oh your review was so cute! Thank you very much and I hope you will stick to this story. I have read the story you suggested and it was really good, so I am open for other suggestions from you! ;)

**pinky101** Hi again I'm really glade you are reviewing to nearly every chapter I write and just wanted to thank you for your encouragement. Your vote is counted, like always ;)

**Artemis411: **Thanks for your review it really made me happy when I read it. Here's the next chapter so enjoy yourself

**Devil-Speaker**: Lol ;) Well, I guess you could express it like that. Thx for the review and your vote is counted of course.

**Starlight - Wild Koneko**Hey again ;). Thx for your review but I kinda have to disappoint you. In the next chapters won't be much SaiXsakuXneji action but don't worry I will make a few flashbacks so you will get what you want ;)

**aznkitty180:** Hey! Don't worry Sakura will get her revenge. Hehe. I will take care of that Thx for your review!

**KairiSakuraTohru:** Oh thank you! Glade you liked the twist. I wasn't sure if you would be okay with Sakura going kinda evil but obviously all of you like that "bad" Sakura ;) Your vote will be counted of course! Cya soon ;)

**TeenageCrisis**Hey again! Thx for sticking to my story and reviewing like every chapter ;) Don't worry about the pairing thing; we will just see how the votes are and what would be matching to the plot Cya in the next chapter!

**Mayumi Crescent Moon** Hey! Glade you liked the NejiXSaku action. We will have to wait what the other readers want but I will add more NejiXSaku that's for sure! Cya soon!

**tobihobi**: That's so sweet! I didn't know that my writing stile was so emotional but thank you nonetheless! Don't worry Sakura will get her revenge! You can be sure of that (evil laughter)

**Uniquely Ironic** She will do that for sure! Thx for your review and I am glade you liked the twist! I always do enjoy stories with a "bad" Sakura ;)

**InARealPickle**Thank you so much ;) That was really cute of you! Hm your review is kinda hard to answer. I don't know the plot completely so I guess I will just count your voice twice. One for SakuXItachi and one for SakuXno one ;) You okay with that? Cya soon

**narutocraze1233**Hey! Thx for your review and the praise but I already have made a SaiXSaku flashback. If you want I can add another one of course. Just answer then I know what I have to do See you soon!

**dustymoon**Hi! All right your vote will be counted! Thx for the praise ;) cya!

**shadow miko**Hey again! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy yourself and thx for your review! Cya

**UcHiHa . BeBoT x**: Hey! Well you obviously don't like "bad" Sakura ;) Don't worry there will be other twists after that one so maybe she will turn "good" again cya and thx for your review ;)

**al2010** Hey again! I'm glade you liked the NejiXSaku thing. I wasn't sure about that part so thanks for the encouragement. Cya soon ;)

**animemistress209**Hey thx for your review! I am glade you like my story and hope you will stick to it ;) Cya soon

**Deidralvr** I have to agree with you ;) Strong female characters are just and simply the best! I hope this chapter is long enough for you, but I doubt it Cya soon!

So that's it! Here is chapter 12 for you:

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Chapter 12: 

Itachi just stared at her blankly. He had expected everything, from crying to cursing and back again. But he hadn't calculated what she had just said. It simple wasn't written in his book of concept. And exactly that irritated him He normally knew everything and could asses everyone without any problems. But this kunoichi -no, Sakura, just tied his brain into knots. He still watched her standing there in front of him with her fists clinched and eyes hard and full of suppressed emotions. At least he still could look behind her façade, distinguish act and reality.

Sakura closely watched Itachi thinking about her request. She slowly got to know him. Every time he was thinking hard he wrinkled the skin under his left eye softly. It was only hardly noticeable but thanks to her excellent power of observation it attracted her attention nonetheless. She was still somewhat surprised and shocked by her own impolite and spontaneous action only moments ago. But on the other hand it had been exactly what she wanted. She sought revenge for all they had done to her and she knew that she only could reach that goal with the help of Akatsuki. It surely wasn't a nice feeling to depend on a criminal organisation but they kind of depended on her, too. Well at least Itachi did and he seemed to be one of the strongest members.

She was so caught up in her own thought that she didn't saw said man nodding hesitantly. Only after he had cleared his throat audible and a bit huffy he was rewarded with her attention again. He sighed slowly out of boredom, or so it should seem, of course. But Sakura know better. He would never show her that she was somehow important at all; neither to him nor to Akatsuki.

But before she could space out again into the depths of Itachi's nebulous character he said: "I have to consult with leader-sama first before I can tell you our final answer. But I don't see a reason why you shouldn't be allowed to join so I might as well tell you that you will most likely be part of Akatsuki in several hours from now." Sakura only nodded to show him that she understood what he was telling her. "I will leave you now. I don't believe you want to flee again so feel free to explore your new home."

"All ri-"before she could answer him fully he had already vanished shortly after whispering some strange sounding words.

She stayed like that, looking at the empty spot where Itachi had been only moments before and than just shrugged her shoulders. She might as well inspect this place like he told her to do. It wasn't like she wouldn't have done that without his advice but it was good to know that she was actually allowed to roam through this building. She was currently standing in front of the door to her room so she had several alternative possibilities where to go next.

Looking into her right and left direction she saw that the left direction lead to a dead end. Well, you could at least call it like that. Due to the dark walls all over this place the white window with the overly nice curtains looked quite strange. She cautiously moved towards the dead end and looked outside of the transparent glass. You could see the beautiful garden with the flowers blooming all over the place and there even was a little lake with a wooden bridge leading over it. Sighing she turned around again and was welcomed by darkness and sorrow. She sweat dropped and quickly spun around to see the harmonic view again but something had changed. Inside of the lake was something big moving around. She moved her face directly in front of the window in order to see clearly what caused such big waves. She could detect a figure slowly emerging from the water and rushed backwards with a yelp. There, inside of the beautiful lake stood Kisame, with a fish fidgeting inside of his shark like mouth. "Uh…" Sakura made with her left eye twitching. "That's disgusting!" But she finally knew why he had such an offensive odour surrounding him.

Shaking her head she slowly turned around and moved towards the staircase she had passed by several minutes before. As soon as she had reached it she made her way downstairs, towards the kitchen she had seen when she had first tried to escape. After thinking about where the location had been she followed the floor and then turned right. This house was like some sort of strange labyrinth, with monsters hiding behind every door she opened. Maybe there weren't any monsters but Kisame and this plant like guy sure looked like one. (no offence to Kisame/Zetsu fans ;) )

But she was soon rewarded by the sight of the other battered staircase and then she remembered where the kitchen was positioned. Reaching the entrance she was welcomed by Deidara sitting on a wooded chair, preparing food.

He seemed to be quite surprised to see her but smiled his trademark grin nonetheless. Smiling slightly back she mumbled a quiet greeting. The fair man answered cheerfully:" Itachi told me what happened. Well, I am happy to have another girl joining Akatsuki, ya know. I don't like Konan so much, yeah." Sakura looked at him dumbfounded. She had never counted on Itachi being some kind of gossiper but obviously he had informed the other members about her request already.

Feeling her stomach grumbling slightly due to the tasty looking sushi on the table she moved towards it and seated herself across from Deidara. The trail of fruits inside of her room was long since eaten and she had always been one to eat like a horse after she had been converted by Chouji about how tasty food can really be.

Grifting one of the delicious looking Nigiri pieces she quickly stuffed it inside of her mouth and chewed contently. "That's really tasty." she complemented after she had swallowed. "Thanks. Today it was Kisame's turn to run into town and fetch something to eat. He only brought fish but he was surprisingly fast. I wonder how he did that…" Deidara explained, the last part mainly mumbled to himself. Sakura, chewing another sushi roll, just nodded until the meaning of his words sunk in completely.

She went completely rigid and asked another time to make sure:"Kisame…brought the fish?"

"Yeah." Deidara simply said while looking at her quizzically. Sakura, remembering the scene she had witnessed while standing at the window, made a gagging sound. "Hu, what's up, yeah?" the fair man asked concerned. "Is something wrong with my food?"

The seventeen year old girl only rewarded him with an unfriendly glance and concentrated at her trail of thought again, while coughing quite hard. _Don't throw up, don't throw up, don't-_ Fortunately for her and every other person in this house her mantra worked and she slouched back at her chair. Deidara still looked at her strangely, then at his food and back again. Before he could ask another question concerning the state of his meal she quickly mumbled:" I just got something stuck in my windpipe." "Okay, yeah…." he said disbelieving. But after a short moment of observing her facial expression he shrugged and concentrated back at work.

The pink haired girl was still kinda shocked by what had just happened and silently cursed Kisame's laziness. She was really hungry right now but she would never eat the fish the shark man personally had captured with his mouth. She sighed and got up again. "I have to go. See you soon." Deidara coolly waved with his left hand and mumbled a happy goodbye after glancing at her with a friendly smile. Sakura kindly smiled back and then rushed outside of the room. She kind of pitied Deidara and even Itachi for having to eat that crap. Maybe she should go back and tell him what really happened with that fish. But then she shook her head. It wasn't any of her business after all and they most likely wouldn't even believe her. And if they did Kisame would be punished by Itachi for sure and she really didn't need the wrath of the blue skinned man.

Sighing again she slowly made her way towards the heavy looking black door which would lead outside to the garden. As soon as she tried to open it she noticed that the exit was looked. _Well, I guess I am kinda lucky here._ She thought while grinning widely to herself. She roamed through her pouch and soon found the metal ring with the silver key dangling from it. She happily put it inside of the lock and turned it around. The door didn't make a sound but she didn't give a damn about it. She didn't want to escape again. All she wanted was to breathe some fresh air and explore her surroundings. She cautiously made a few steps outside and heard the door closing again. She shortly looked over her shoulder and quietly shook her head. It was really amazing. The seemingly dark entrance door was looking totally different from outside here. It was like some genjutsu encircling this mansion and let it seem like something completely unlike from what it actually was.

She continued her trail and had soon circled the whole building. It somehow depressed her to see the house of her dreams being the hideout of a criminal organization she would soon be part of. She opened the entrance door again and found herself bumping into a muscular masculine chest. "Oh come on not again…." she simply said with a strong feeling of déjà vu occurring inside of her aching head. Rubbing the bruised spot she looked up only to see Itachi standing in front of her again, like predicted. He nodded to acknowledge her presence and then threw some sort of cloth over her head. Grumbling slightly she removed it with both of her hands and gave him a very evil glance. He stayed totally unaffected by her look of death and simply said"Welcome to Akatsuki, Sakura." She wasn't really surprised to hear that and just nodded her head to show him that she understood what he had said. "You may put your cloak on now and then follow me. Leader-sama wants to meet you."

That again did surprise her. She swallowed hard and then looked back at the clothing he had "given" her moments ago. It was black with red clouds plastered all over it. Her Akatsuki cloak. She quickly put it on and was irritated to see that it fitted perfectly. Before she could ask him about how they knew her size and why they harboured something which was obviously way too small for them she had to run in order to catch up with the young man.

_Well, let's see who this mysterious Leader-sama is…_

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So I hope you liked it. I personally don't 'cause it was some kind of filler chapter; I have some kind of writer block so I contemplate about making another story to ease it again. What do you think of that? I am always open for your wishes and ideas, so yeah ;) By the way here are the votes so far: 

SakuraXItachi: 23

SaiXSakuraXNeji: 12

DeidaraXSakura: 4

NejiXSakura: 10

SaiXSakura: 1

SasukeXSakura: 1

SakuraXNobody: 2

See you soon,

Serafina25


	13. Chapter 13

Hi everyone! I am so sorry for the late update! So I will stop talking now and let you read the next chapter of my story. By the way I was to lazy to replay to the reviews I have received so I just wanted to thank everyone who reviewed! Love you all!! ;)

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Chapter 13**

Sakura followed him silently, not wanting to cause any sound inside of this mysterious floor he had directed her in. She hadn't really been able to remember how many times they had climbed stairs, had gone downstairs again, turned right or left hand side or even passed several different secret passages. She had already figured that he wanted to confuse her with disorientating her so that she would lower her guard. Even inside of this really big house was no possibility that there could be some place so far away from the entrance door- they have been walking for about 15 minutes already.

She finally sighed. She had had enough mind-playing games for the last seventeen years so she really didn't need this right now. "Gosh darn it, Itachi! Just lead the damn way to him and stop fooling around!" the pink haired girl hissed annoyed.

The sharingan user immediately stopped and turned around to face her. He had a contemplating look on his face and after a few seconds of observing her he said: "Ya know. Leader-sama told me to delay our arriving. So I thought it would be a good idea just to go for a little walk inside of your new home. But-"

Before he could finish his sentence he vanished into thin air. Sakura tensed immediately but even thought she reacted promptly she was still too slow. He had reappeared behind her and captured her with his arms, all within one blink of an eye.

"What the hell?!" Sakura gasped as soon as he had thrown her against the closest wall to his left side. Before she could spit different things into his face he leaned forward and captured her lips in a demanding kiss. His lips felt cold against her warm ones. He had positioned his one hand next to her face while the other one secured her hands so that she wasn't able to hit him. "Nngh!" she made as soon as she could feel his tong searching for a small spot to enter her mouth. She struggled against him. Finally she reacted vigorously, so that she would stop being like wax inside of his murderous fingers any longer.

Lifting both of her legs in order to pull a stunt and hit him really hard she could feel him leaving her tickling lips again and stepping a few steps backwards until he touched the other wall of the floor. He obviously had respect for her fists.

"What the hell?!" she shouted at him enraged as she rubbed her aching wrists. Itachi just shrugged his shoulders blankly and then licked his lips as if to savour her taste on his lips. That made her shudder really hard. "You didn't want to go for a walk so I thought you would enjoy some different activities."

She made a face at him and lifted herself from the cold floor again. While she had struggled against him and lifted her legs she had depended on his securing hands-so as soon as he jerked back she fell to the ground very ungraceful. But right at that point of time she didn't gave a damn about it.

Suddenly Itachi went rigid and put a hand on his temple. "What-" Sakura started but was interrupted as soon as Itachi lifted his other hand and signed her to stop talking. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and kind of pouted, but kept her mouth shut nonetheless.

Trying not to look at him in order to avoid a penetrating glance, she observed her surroundings. Unfortunately there wasn't much to look at except for crumbling and blank stonewalls. Their current position was inside of an obviously old secret passage which they had entered after pushing a hidden button inside of a bookcase. She had jerked back as soon as she had noticed a small hole forming inside of the wall which led them inside of said passage. It wasn't like it had been her first time to discover a secret entrance but she was quite nervous and overreacted by every sound she heard or thing she saw.

She cautiously lifted the fingertips of her right hand towards her lips and touched them carefully as if the were still burning from the kiss she had just received. In contrast to the secret passage thing the kiss had been her very first -she could feel tears burning in her eyes and quickly turned around as if she would want to observe an especially large hole inside of a wall. She would never allow him to see what he was able to do to her and how much he affected her feelings and her thoughts.

She had once dreamed of the perfect first kiss with her prince charming. She laughed softly at the memory.

_Flashback_

"Hey, Ino?" little Sakura addressed her best friend. "Is there a boy you like?" They were sitting in the middle of a beautiful flower field during a wonderful spring day. "Ano..."" Ino started as she hugged her knees to bring her legs closer to her body. Little Sakura didn't know that that gesture was made due to insecurity. She just couldn't imagine the fair girl to be shy-she was some kind of hero and idol to her. So Sakura quickly copied her position and laid her head on her knees. "I guess..." Ino finally said.

The pink haired girl squeaked excitedly and nudged her best friend. "Tell me, tell me!" she demanded "I don't think you know him... His father is a very good friend of mine and they often come over to have dinner together with our family."

"Oh..." she little girl made, kind of disappointed. But she was quickly in a good mood again and started to pepper little Ino with questions. "What is he like? How old is he?" Ino laughed softly and again she did something to overplay her uncertainty. Pulling out a beautiful yellow flower from the soft earth she inhaled the sweet scent of it and started to pluck the petals one by one.

"Well..." she started again "he's about our age I guess." Then she smiled dreamily. "He's kind of lazy and sometimes he behaves like a jerk." **(You know who I am talking about? I guess so ;)**

"Uh…" her shy friend made. "I see..." Shaking her pink hair as if to get ride of the not so nice images of Ino's crush she asked slyly." So…did you already kiss him?" The fair girl started to turn red what made Sakura giggle softly. "Not yet. I want to have a romantic first kiss you know. And I want to be happy when I remember it." The flower had lost every single one of his pretty petals during the talk of the two girls and Ino let it fall to the ground without really noticing it.

"Yeah me too." Sakura agreed with her best friend. "I want to find my prince charming and kiss him and live happily together with him for the rest of my life" She sighed dreamily. Ino chuckled softly and glanced at her friend. "Yes, me too. And then we will go shopping together and take a walk with our children and play with them." They both giggled and looked at each other happily. "I hope so." Sakura stated and stretched her legs again. They had fallen asleep during their talk and due to the uncomfortable position she had forced them to be in.

End Flashback

She had been so caught up in her thought that she hadn't noticed Itachi walking the short distance towards her. When he coughed directly next to her ear in order to get her attention she quickly spun around. Itachi didn't bother to ask her what was wrong. Instead of that he simply said: "I received a message from leader-sama. He wants us to meet him now." Sakura nodded, trying to overplay her insecurity like Ino once did. Itachi looked at her for a short moment with a contemplating look but then turned around and continued walking. The cherry-haired girl relaxed visually and then followed silently, thinking about Itachi's strange behaviour earlier. _He laid his hand on his skull and then said he had received a message from leader-sama. I wonder how they can talk to each other across the building. Maybe some sort of strange jutsu?I could simply ask him…_

"Um..."She cautiously mumbled. He didn't react. "Ahem!" she tried again, noticeable louder. Still no reaction. "Gosh, Itachi!! Stop ignoring me!" she all but shouted.

He turned slowly around to face her.

And she couldn't believe her eyes. He was listening to a pink IPod!

**(Na, just kidding! Back to the real story! ;) )**

He turned slowly around to face her. If looks could kill Sakura would have died there and then. "What?" he hissed annoyed. "Uh..." she mumbled meekly and gulped.

_Gosh, girl! __Stop stuttering around already. _She scolded herself.

Sakura straightened up what caused Itachi to raise an eyebrow. "I wanted to ask you how you can receive a message from leader-sama even though he is not even here." she confidently stated.

After a few moments of silence he finally answered; "It is called telepathy. Leader-sama invented a special jutsu so every Akatsuki could use it to communicate with the others."

Sakura looked at him blankly, not sure if she could really believe that. During her career as a medic she had received much knowledge of jutsus but she was pretty sure that she had never heard of anything like that. "Yeah, right…" she just said, kind of annoy that he played her for a sucker. "I will show you." Itachi said moments before he laid his hands on his temples again and closed his eyes. Suddenly she heard a voice inside of her head. _**You believe me now?**_ Jerking back due to the simple fact that Itachi had entered her mind she crushed against the hard wall. Hissing slightly because of the impact she concentrated at the quiet voice inside of her head. And then smirked. Well, let's see what Inner-Me will do to him…

And said creature emerged out of one of the dark corners inside of her mind and went straight for Itachi's physical projection that had already formed in her head. _**Hey, sucker!**_ Inner-Sakura shouted cockily. Itachi jerked his head around and looked at her, totally surprised. _**What the hell-**_ he started to say but was interrupted immediately. _**Shut up and stop playing with my mind**_! Then she smirked evilly. _**But tit for tat, right?**_ She griped his arm and then shouted into his projected ear: _**Get the hell out of my head! That's my stomping ground!!**_

She could immediately feel something rushing out of her head and couldn't help but smirk as soon as Itachi removed his hands from his temples and held it over the ear Inner-Sakura had shouted in only seconds before.

"Well, that was Inner-Me for you!" she stated gleefully.

Itachi just snorted and said: "Just wanted to answer your question. You didn't have to free this silly thing you have inside of your head!"

_Silly thing? I will show him who the silly dude here is! Hell yeah!_

Sakura ignored the voice and sighed softly. She had needed weeks of therapy with Tsunade to get ride of this 'mental disorder'. At least her teacher called it like that when she first told her about the voice in her head. And now she was outside again. But maybe it wasn't that bad at all. At least she could talk to someone during her stay in the lonely basement even thought it would be just herself.

_Oh how nice…Just me!_ Inner-Sakura stated ironically.

_Shut up!_ She thought annoyed. Oh, she really hadn't missed her once.

Itachi meanwhile had removed his hand from his most likely aching or even deaf ear and started walking towards a small door a few meters away. She followed him again, still arguing with the annoying voice in her head and passed the door he opened for her without sparing him a single glance.

"Ahem…" Itachi made surprisingly civilly. "What?!" she snapped at him, having been torn away from an argument with Inner-Sakura. "Sakura, meet leader-sama." She spun around and faced a darkish person sitting on some kind of throne. _Oh crap, talk about a good first impression…_For once, the voice in her head just agreed with her thoughts.

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So I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Again, I am sorry for the late update but I was really busy and I just had no ideas what to write. And before I post bullshit I just waited until I got some sort of inspiration ;)

I talked about making another story and received an idea of a vampire fic. Actually I love vampires so I was totally agreeing until I tried to write the first chapter. I really suck at writing vampire fics…

Well, then I thought about making Sakura going to high school and living with her mother and her mother falls in love with Sasuke's and Itachi's father. Then they have to move and she lives with them in a house and goes to a new high school where Naruto and Ino and etc. are, too. What do you think of this idea? Please tell me! ;)

By the way here are the votes so far:

SakuraXItachi: 32 Whoa I think we have got the winner…

SaiXSakuraXNeji: 13

DeidaraXSakura: 4

NejiXSakura: 11

SaiXSakura: 1

SasukeXSakura: 1

SakuraXNobody: 4


	14. Chapter 14

Hi there!

Well here I am with another late update of my story 'The treachery of Konoha' and first of all I wanted to thank every single reviewer! You just make my day! And I do have a good reason for not updating! You know the book 'twilight' from Stephenie Meyer? If not you just have to read it. It's one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, you know. The sequel 'New moon' is just as good as the first one, and right now I am reading 'eclipse', the third part. I am sure that there are quite many of you who will agree with my opinion so I hope you understand why I couldn't update before I finished the books! Anyway, here's chapter 14 for you:

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Chapter 14**

So finally she was allowed to meet her new master. And she was surprised to see that she couldn't really see him. He was covered in black shadows even thought the large room Sakura was currently standing in was not that dark. She figured that it was a jutsu, made to intimidate foreigners and his own men, the Akatsuki.

But she could make out his approximate silhouette so she could at least detect that he seemed to be normal sized, maybe a bit bigger than Itachi or Deidara. His hair seemed to spike at the ends so that he had a quite surprisingly resemblance with her former best friend Naruto.

She couldn't see his eyes, but since Itachi wasn't saying a word she figured that Leader-sama was currently speaking with a member of Akatsuki in his head like Itachi had shown her before.

Not daring to say anything that would interrupt his trail of thoughts she observed her accompanist. Itachi's jaw line was set hard as if he was pressing his teeth roughly against each other. His meanwhile crimson eyes were set on a dark corner to their left side and he didn't even blink.

Curious about what was so interesting she followed his gaze but it was way to dark to see anything but shadows. She shrugged her shoulders and looked back at leader-sama. And in exact that moment he opened his eyes. Itachi could hear his companion drawing a deep breath and immediately tensed "Rinnegan!" she hissed, completely shocked. To make it even worse Itachi suddenly throw himself in front of her, his arm lifted in front of his face. He twitched shortly and Sakura could see some drops of blood dripping down towards the cold floor. He slowly lowered his hurt arm again and glowered towards the corner he had observed earlier. "Konan!" he hissed "what was that? You can't just simply kill her!"

A woman quickly emerged from the clinging shadows and made her way towards the throne of her master. "Don't tell me what to do, Itachi. You know what leader-sama once told us to do when someone knows about his rinnegan!"

"But she will join Akatsuki and he only told us to kill that person if he was a foreigner!" Itachi growled back, clearly annoyed by the blue haired woman.

"Silence, both of you." a clear voice suddenly interrupted them and everyone in the room immediately shifted their attention towards the leader of Akatsuki. "You don't have to kill her, Konan so relax." Said woman seemed to pout for a short moment before she thought better and vanished inside the shadows.

"So, Sakura, right?" he asked her with an emotionless but somewhat friendly voice. "Uh yeah, I guess." _Gosh girl what was that? You have to know your name so why 'I guess'_ inner Sakura imitated her voice **Oh shut up I want to concentrate!** She hissed back in her thoughts and snarled lightly. Itachi shot her a warning glance and she quickly straightened up again.

The leader merely lifted his eyebrows at her reaction and continued immediately. "I am Pain-"

"What?" Sakura interrupted. "You are in pain?! Let me see, I can heal you-"

Before she could elaborate she heard Itachi chuckling slightly and noticed leader-sama shifting his weight in his swanky throne. "No, Sakura, I am Pain. That's my name."

"Oh." the girl mumbled, blushing quickly due to her mistake. Ignoring her inner-self laughing like crazy she said. "I am sorry for interrupting you. Please continue."

Pain nodded slightly. "First of all I want to know why you know about the 'rinnegan' you mentioned before Konan attacked you."

"Uhm, I read about it in one of the scrolls of my master, the fifth Hokage."

"And what exactly was mentioned there?" leader-sama inquired immediately.

Sakura shifted her weight uncomfortably. She still wasn't used to giving secret information to the former enemy and had some sort of qualms to tell them what they obviously implicitly wanted to know. _Girl, they betrayed you! It's your turn to pay them back, just like you promised yourself earlier_ inner-Sakura said somewhat annoyed.

**Yeah, but to actually do it is something completely different….**

_All hat and no cattle, huh?__ Her inner-self taunted _

**Oh, just shut up for once, I have got to consider what I ought to tell them**. She hissed back annoyed.

And surprisingly the image in her head sulked and moved towards a dark corner with a leader-like throne and sat down there, still pouting with her arms crossed.

Sighing contently, but only in her head to avoid annoying and embarrassing question she started to explain:" Well, I know that the rinnegan was first possessed by the founder of our current ninja world and that it is characterized by a number of concentric circles around the owner's pupil." she repeated in the exact same way she read it about two months ago.

Both men looked at her anticipatory, waiting for more information. "Uhm, that's it. I don't know anything else." she stated after a moment of awkward silence.

"You don't know how it works? Or what I am able to do with it?" Pain asked distrustful, while Itachi looked at her with his crimson eyes obviously trying to detect if she told the truth.

Meanwhile Inner-Sakura had emerged out of her sulking place and paced up and down with a big, old looking book in her hands. _The rinnegan: It gives the wielder access to all six types of elemental chakra and it also allows sharing visual information with other people._ She read out bumptious. _You know where I got that from?_ She closed her book and continued. _This book contains all of our valuable memories that we have gathered during our wonderful seventeen years of comradeship so you sure you don't know anything else? Better come up with a fine excuse unless you want that sharingan freak to detect your lie immediately!_

Sakura gulped nervously and said with as much determination as possible. "Uhm...no?"

Inner Sakura smote her forehead.

"All right..." the leader said, but spoke the words so slowly that it was obvious that de didn't believe her. "Anyway, let's discuss your joining in our organization."

The pink haired girl immediately tensed and listened carefully to every word he told her. "As you know several of our members unfortunately deceased. They were mostly killed by your former people. But who I am to tell you?" he suddenly said with a sharper voice. "After all you killed one yourself." Sakura smiled sheepishly and received a warning glance from Itachi so she quickly removed the silly expression from her face before Pain could see it. Said man continued his little speech.

"It would be normal to give Sasori's place to you so that you would be the partner of Deidara." Sakura could hear Itachi shifting his weight from one foot to another, but was quickly distracted by the next words of her leader. "But after all we have already given that spot to Tobi- you have met him, I am sure of that- so this opportunity doesn't exist any longer." Itachi stopped moving and relaxed again, but this time Sakura didn't pay any attention to the sharingan-user. "Our only members who are still alive are Deidara, Itachi, Tobi, Kisame, Zetsu, Konan, you and me." He slowly lifted his hand and moved his forefinger back and forth, obviously meant to call his partner, the woman that had attacked her earlier and wounded Itachi instead. Right, as soon as she was allowed to go she would heal Itachi's arm. It wasn't like she felt sorry for him or anything like that. She just hated it to be in someone's debt and right now she clearly was since he saved her life.

And true to her earlier assumption Konan moved towards the throne of Pain, carrying a small box and as soon as she had given it to leader-sama she vanished again without making a single sound. "Since Zetsu always works alone and everyone already has got a partner we will change the teams for your first mission so that you don't have to work alone, Sakura. Since you obviously seem to get along with Deidara quite well he will be your partner for the time being."

Sakura had to force the smile that wanted to spread over her face away and completely ignored Itachi who meanwhile had clench his fists and seemed to be royally pissed of. "But I am sure you understand that we can't let act Tobi on his own. That would be…unwise. And since I highly doubt that Itachi and he would get along without any problems, I will order Kisame to be Tobi's momentary partner. Itachi meanwhile will join your group so that you will be a three men squad." Inner Sakura made a gagging sound. "All right." the pink haired girl said without especially much enthusiasm. But then Itachi interfered, surprisingly glaring at the head of Akatsuki. "Pain, as much as I value your opinion, I don't think it will be necessary to create a three men squad."

Pain immediately lifted himself from his throne and vanished, only to appear in front of Itachi, his shadow like features showing extreme anger, directed towards the sharingan-user. "I don't think that you are allowed to disagree with me, Itachi. Didn't I teach you what will happen if you do?" Itachi winced only barley noticeable and nodded stiffly. "Very well." leader-sama stated calmly again and moved back towards his voluminous chair. Sakura had observed the whole scene with interest, wondering silently what Pain had done to make Itachi so afraid of him. _That's certainly a first. The mighty Uchiha prodigy being afraid!_ Inner-Sakura stated with barely covered glee in her voice**. Didn't I tell you to shut up?** The seventeen-year old kunoichi hissed. _Calm down, girl! Just joking…_

Sakura shook her head in her thought and shortly glanced towards Itachi. He still seemed to be stiff and his one hand clutched the hem of his Akatsuki cloak

Not sure if she should be concerned for him-he saved her life after all- or to agree with her inner self since he was the one to kidnap her she simply averted her glance to Pain again, pretending to not notice what had just happened in this weird room.

"You certainly have noticed that every member of our organization wears a different ring. Each ring bears a unique symbol, the first kanji of its name." Pain indicated Itachi with a movement of his head to show his right hand to Sakura. He complied after a short pause and lifted his right arm. Instead of focusing her emerald eyes at the ring, like predicted, her glance was set firmly at the wound Konan had inflicted earlier.

There was something white sticking in his forearm and blood pouring from the obviously deep wound. The front of the strange object was drenched in the crimson liquid and she shortly wondered what thing Konan had thrown that could inflect such high damage even thought it didn't seem to be made out of iron or another strong material. Before she could enwrap herself deeper in possible conclusion she was abruptly taken out of her trail of thoughts by Itachi who had quietly cleared his throat. Indicating Sakura to look at the ring rather than at his wound she complied and lowered her glance until she reached his pale hand. The ring was blood red, somewhat matching his sharingan with a black kanji written in the middle of it. "Crimson…" she mumbled.

"Exactly. The kanji scratched inside of the ring means 'red' and it is the beginning of 'Suzaku', the Vermilion Bird."

Sakura nodded her head, showing that she understood what he told her. He continued, while opening the little box which had lain on the ground, forgotten by everyone. "Right now we have got two rings left; the one of Hidan and the one of Kakuzu. Considering your personality I would rather give 'Hokuto', the Big Dipper, to you. I guess that would be more fitting than the one of Hidan."

"Uh, I guess that's okay with me." Sakura didn't have a single clue about what leader-sama was talking about so she just agreed with whatever he was saying. Maybe she could ask Deidara sometime why Pain thought that the Big Dipper was suiting her personality.

And again Konan vanished out of the shadows and paced towards Pain without him saying a word of order to her. She quickly grabbed the box and walked towards Sakura steadily but without giving her a single glance. **She obviously already dislikes me. **Sakura thought kind of disappointed. She had hoped to get along with the only other female member of Akatsuki but Konan's attitude had burst her bubble effectively. Before she could listen to a most likely ironic comment of inner-Sakura the blue-haired woman already positioned herself in front of the way smaller girl and opened the box.

Inside of the wooden container was a small ring, witch was quite similar to Itachi's. They had the same crimson color but the kanji was different. Her one meant 'north'. She couldn't help but somehow feel proud as she took the metal piece out of the box and positioned it on her left middle finger, remembering the files she read about Kakuzu. He had always worn it on this finger and she assumed that there was a special meaning to the different positions every single ring harbored. So she sure as hell wouldn't change that tradition. "You may go now. I will inform you about your next mission as soon as possible." Only moments after Pain had finally released them Itachi paced towards the exit and Sakura hurriedly followed him. He really seemed to be uncomfortable around the leader of Akatsuki. The pink-haired girl smiled slightly. At least he seemed to have one weak point. And if she could find out why he respected Pain so much she could maybe take advantage of that fact.

He opened the door and let her pass the threshold first, but immediately followed her. As soon as the door was closed he seemed to relax again. **Whoa, I had never thought I would ever be able to read him so well. I guess he really is just human after all**. _Yeah, right. He just simply killed his whole family, messed up his brother's mind and joined Akatsuki. But, really, who wouldn't love to do that?_ **Yeah, I know. But maybe he did have good reasons. You can't judge him without knowing every single fact.** _Seriously, you think there is any fact that would excuse what he has done this far? I don't think so._ Sakura hated to admit it but her inner-self was right. But she would ask him to explain his reasons to her nonetheless.

"Itachi!" she said, suddenly noticing drops of blood scattered at the dusky ground. They seemed to glow in the dim light the torches caused. Said man turned his head around to face her, since he had gained the lead again and stopped his hurried footsteps. "What?" he asked surprisingly patient. "Your wound…let me heal it." Sakura answered calmly.

After a short moment of silence he sighed defeated and sat on the ground, all the time watching her movements. She sat closely beside him, immediately lifting his arm and observing the wound. She quickly pulled out the white thing she had noticed earlier and was really surprised to see that it was a piece of paper, neatly folded in the form of a rose, with spicy endings which had bored deeply into the flesh of his arm. "Origami." she mumbled surprised, but loud enough for Itachi to detect. "Yeah. She can divide her body into countless numbers of paper sheets which are covered in a secretion that stops the wound healing."

"I see." she simply stated, already focused on his lesion. It was quite easy to heal, since the spiky endings had only caused several small wounds and that was way easier to heal than a gash. "You know…" she began, unsure if he would be okay with talking. "What?" he encouraged her, while observing the process she made with healing his wound. "I just wanted to ask you…why you killed your clan?" Itachi chuckled slightly but answered nonetheless, glancing up in her eyes to emphasize his response. "I can't tell you yet. Ask me that again when I am sure that you are trustworthy."

"All right…"she made disappointed, once again concentrating back at her work. She had almost closed every scratch so she only had to heal the bigger ones. "You know…" This time it was Itachi who started making conversation. "Yeah?" she encouraged him just like he had only moments before. "I was wondering…if you know why leader-sama thought that the Big Dipper would be matching for you." Even thought she was pretty sure that that hadn't been the question he wanted to ask she responded with shaking her head. "No, I don't."

"I could explain it to you, if you want me to." Sakura glanced up from her work to look at him surprised. Why was he suddenly so friendly and polite? Had she missed something? "Uhm, sure."

"You know, not especially many people are able to locate the Big Dipper in the sky. It is always there in approximately the same place, day and night. They think that it must be very bright, but it is not. Its most outstanding quality results from its location, rather than from its relative brightness."

"Wow, that's… significant. " Sakura stated after a short moment of silence. She had meanwhile finished her work and looked up in his eyes. They were crimson, like her new ring, and they watched her somewhat intently. She nervously gulped, blushing slightly because of their proximity. Her glance focused on his lips and she could help but remember the kiss they had shared earlier this day. If she hadn't been so surprised, she would have been able to remember how it had exactly felt like to have his perfect lips pressed against her one's, his tongue exploring her mouth… _Okay, cut it! What are you thinking? This man is your enemy!_ The ranting of her inner-self had harshly retrieved her from her not so good thoughts and she quickly stood up, breaking the moment of intensity. "Let's go." she quietly mumbled and avoided Itachi's searching glance for the rest of the way back to her room.

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This one is the longest chapter I have ever written! Oh, and I hope the things I mentioned about the different rings and the other Akatsuki concerning business is actually right. If not please tell me so I can fix it! About the election thing, I guess it is pretty obvious that the majority of you prefer ItachiXSakura. I will ensure that there will be other pairings as well so don't worry; there will be a lot of jealousy! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading and I hope you will review!

Have a nice day,

serafina25


	15. author's note!

Hey everyone!

I thought that it would be best to tell you that I haven't abounded this story! I just have no time to write at the moment but don't worry as soon as I have got a few hours to write and some good ideas how to continue this story I definitely will!

cya soon,

serafina25


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